Count me in as one of those that thought it won't happen, even as recently as 2 years ago. My reasoning was that a late 30s Ovechkin couldn't keep up his pace. For sake of comparison, in Gretzky's final season (age 38) he score a mere 9 goals. Digging deeper, he never scored more than 25 after his age 33 season. (granted, those seasons were the dead puck late 90s and he was always more of a distributor than shooter). Nevertheless, I didn't think Ovechkin could keep up a 30 goal pace this late in his career. Good for him.
I think 163 assists in a season is his safest record. And my favorite mind boggling NHL stat of all time? Number of 100 assist seasons: Wayne Gretzky 11, everyone else in NHL history combined 4.
Count me in as one of those that thought it won't happen, even as recently as 2 years ago. My reasoning was that a late 30s Ovechkin couldn't keep up his pace. For sake of comparison, in Gretzky's final season (age 38) he score a mere 9 goals. Digging deeper, he never scored more than 25 after his age 33 season. (granted, those seasons were the dead puck late 90s and he was always more of a distributor than shooter). Nevertheless, I didn't think Ovechkin could keep up a 30 goal pace this late in his career. Good for him.
I think 163 assists in a season is his safest record. And my favorite mind boggling NHL stat of all time? Number of 100 assist seasons: Wayne Gretzky 11, everyone else in NHL history combined 4.
Safest bet is Glenn Hall’s consecutive starts — it’s up there with Cy Young
Other people thought he would get 99 this season but I was fool enough to say it on a podcast