By Tyler Fennell
Staff Writer
Alexander Ovechkin recently broke Wayne Gretzky’s all time goal record. In a 4-1 loss against the New York Islanders, Ovi scored the only goal for the Capitals and scored the 895th goal of his career. That 895th goal marked the most goals by a single player in NHL history.
While Wayne Gretzky was never seen as a goal scorer, his dominance in the 80s, in combination with the arguably not great goaltending compared to the modern era, led him to have the record for most goals in NHL history and the most goals scored in a single season.
Despite his records, he has never been seen as the greatest goal scorer of all time. Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux and Ovechkin were all in the conversation above Gretzky as a greater pure goal scorer. Even Auston Matthews, who is only 27 years old, is widely considered a better goal scorer than Gretzky.
These players all have one stat in common greater than Gretzky's, and that is goals per game. Bossy is the all-time goals per game leader with 0.76. Lemieux is second with 0.75. However, in Lemiexu’s prime before his battles with injury and cancer, he scored at an absurd 0.82 goals per game.
Both Gretzky and Ovi are tied with 0.60 goals per game. However, Ovi started his career in an era where goaltending was at its peak, and scoring was at its lowest, making Ovi’s record even more impressive.
In the game Ovechkin broke the scoring record, the Capitals lost to the Islanders, keeping the Islanders’ playoff hopes alive for a little bit. Unfortunately for the Isles, they were eliminated from playoff contention against the Philadelphia Flyers. With the Rangers also being eliminated with a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Eastern Conference Wild Card race comes down to two teams: the Montreal Canadiens and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Both teams have far exceeded expectations. With both teams being in deep rebuilds the year prior and with Columbus mourning the death of their star forward Johnny Gaudreau over the summer, many expected these teams to be last in their division.
However, both teams have proved many NHL fans and experts wrong.
The Canadiens have received excellent production from their captain Nick Suzuki, their rookie defenseman and Calder trophy candidate Lane Hutson and star winger Cole Caufield. They also have received a massive boost to their offense with 2024 fifth overall pick Ivan Demidov signing his entry-level contract after his Kontinental Hockey League season ended. In his first game against the Chicago Blackhawks on April 14, he scored his first NHL goal and had his first NHL assist. However, because the Canadiens lost the game in a shootout, this keeps the Columbus Blue Jackets' playoff hopes alive.
If Columbus wins the rest of their games and the Canadiens lose the rest of their games, the Blue Jackets will take the final playoff spot in the East.
The Blue Jackets have received excellent production from their main offseason acquisition in Sean Monahan, and their potential Norris Trophy candidate Zach Werenski. Their star winger in Kirill Marchenko has broken out and proven himself as a legit first-line winger. Adam Fantilli has broken out since January and has shown glimpses of an elite centre. Yegor Chinakhov and Dimitri Voronkov have also proven themselves as top-six talent, especially considering that when Chinakhov was drafted, nobody knew who he was. Clearly, the Blue Jackets knew something the rest of the media did not about Chinakhov.
The Western Conference Wild Card race is a three team race with neither wild card spot being clinched just yet. The Minnesota Wild, the St. Louis Blues and the Calgary Flames all are fighting for one of the three spots. The Flames are a few points behind, but because both the Wild and the Blues are tied in points, neither have a leg up on the other or an opportunity to eliminate the Flames.
The Blues went on a surprise run with a 12-game winning streak in March, putting them into the playoff conversation. The Wild have fallen off from their previous top three division spot they had earlier in the season due to long-term injuries to their star forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson-Ek. With them returning, they could make for a real playoff threat.
