It Happened

It was undoubtedly going to happen before this season ended. We all knew the likelihood of Alexander Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's career goals mark was within reach and certainly attainable for Ovechkin as long as he stayed healthy, and he has done that for most of the season despite him reportedly having a broken leg earlier in the campaign. Regardless of the handful of games he missed, Ovechkin was still finding the back of the net more often than any 39 year-old player should, and the speed in which he approached Gretzky's mark was impressive. Today, Ovechkin scored the 895th goal of his career, breaking Gretzky's mark, and it should allow the hockey world to resume its normal build-up towards the playoffs moving forward.

I've already given my reasons why I wasn't interested in Ovechkin's quest for 895, so I won't rewrite what was already written. Instead, let's go to the video of the moment where history was made.
Ovechkin scored the historic 895th goal of his career at 7:26 of the second period while on the power-play against New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin to cut the Islanders' lead to 2-1, kicking off a long pause as dignitaries, teammates, and Wayne Gretzky himself made their way onto the ice to congratulate Ovechkin. For the record, Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome assisted on the record-breaking goal while John Carlson and Jeff Chychrun were the Washington defenders and Charlie Lindgren was between the pipes. The four Islanders who were killing the penalty were Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Simon Holmstrom.

Lots of sports icons from across the sports world gave Ovechkin their congratulations, and these were plastered all over social and shared about a bazillion times. I'm not certain why people like Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and LeBron James were offering their congratulations, but to each their own. Seeing the other sports recognize Ovechkin's achievement is nice, but it felt a little forced. Regardless of that aspect, I do offer him my congratulations for reaching the milestone, and I'm sure he'll put new ones in place before this season and his career is over. 895 and counting!

The Islanders would prevail on this historic day by a 4-1 score, and that loss prevented the Capitals from surpassing the Winnipeg Jets for top spot in the NHL standings. With five games to go for each of those two teams, Winnipeg has 108 points while Washington remains at 107 points. Dallas is three points back of Winnipeg and two behind Washington, and the Vegas Golden Knights are six points back of Winnipeg and five back of Washington. If you're wondering about schedules, here are the remaining five teams for each of the four teams who have broken 100 points this season:

• Winnipeg: vs STL, at DAL, at CHI, vs EDM, vs ANA.
• Washington: vs CAR, at CBJ, vs CBJ, at NYI, at PIT.
• Dallas: vs VAN, vs WPG, vs UTA, at DET, at NAS.
• Vegas: at COL, vs SEA, vs NAS, at CAL, at VAN.

With the quest for 985 behind us, the quest for home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs and the President's Trophy can continue. Four teams have a shot with two of those teams - Winnipeg and Washington - heading towards the finish line neck-and-neck. Arguably, the Jets have the tougher schedule and could potentially fall back to third-overall depending on how the next two games go against St. Louis and Dallas, but Washington has tough games against a fighting-for-their-playoff-lives Columbus squad and an Islanders team that just shut them down today. Who will win this race?

We'll know over the next eleven days as these four teams are in the final stretch. One of the four will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs and a shiny trophy to display at the office. It's not quite 895 goals and a spot in the NHL record books, but Ovechkin could legitimately do both this season. The harder one of the two feats? He's already accomplished that.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!