Courtesy: Washington Capitals Facebook Page
This Alexander Ovechkin guy is pretty good at hockey and it seems as if he always finds new ways to amaze all who partake in his entertainment.
In case you missed it, the Washington Capitals won a game they had no business even being in against the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday night in Verizon Center 6-5 in shootout fashion. The Washington captain had four goals, although he didn’t score in the shootout rounds, and was doing exactly what his nickname suggests; Ovechkin was being great at scoring goals and uplifting his team when they had seemingly no hope.
This is the third time this season that a player in the NHL has tallied four goals in a game, but it is also the third time in Ovechkin’s career that the 28-year-old forward has lit up the lamps four times in a game as he improves his NHL-leading scoring total to 26 goals in 29 games in 2013-14 — St. Louis Blues forward Alexander Steen and Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry are tied-second with 20. The historic night also marked his 13th career hat trick since joining the professional ranks back in 2005-06. The man they call “The Gr8” also became the sole leader of another statistical category in Tuesday night’s victory.
Ovechkin has always been a core member of the power play unit since his arrival in D.C. Whether it’s at the blue line, the slot or the low corner, the captain always finds himself at the right place on the man-advantage. Even if it’s been opportunities he’s created himself, or if they’re chances created by center Nicklas Backstrom — the Swede had a power play goal and four helpers for Ovechkin — the Russian forward always seems to elevate his play when the special teams units are asked to hop over the boards and on to the ice.
Tuesday night, with Ovechkin’s pair of power play tallies, he is now alone atop of Washington’s all-time power play goals list with 138 passing former Capitals great Peter Bondra in the process. The commemorative puck was awarded to Ovechkin in the locker room following the victory and he has no signs of slowing down at that mark.
Barring injury, Ovechkin may be looking at a 70-goal season, but regardless of all of the individual accolades, deep down he still wants that elusive Stanley Cup. Championships define players across all sports. Some stars are fortunate to lift their teams to the promised land and win. Others fail and some never taste what it’s like to be a part of a championship let alone win one.
The superstar has seen the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Pavel Datsyuk and several of the other elite players in the NHL hoist the Cup since his professional debut and he hasn’t even made an appearance in a single championship series. In a sport defined by legends like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, guys who had the numbers and the Cups to define their legacies, Ovechkin knows that he will likely collect more pucks like the one he did last night, but all of them are just minute memoirs of what he wants to be remembered as long after his NHL tenure has expired.
