Already the king of the NHL’s all-time goal scoring ledger, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin added another jewel to his crown on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena when he became the first player in League history to net his 900th career goal.
With the Caps holding a 1-0 lead over the visiting St. Louis Blues, Ovechkin made history yet again when he put a seemingly blind backhander behind beleaguered Blues goalie Jordan Binnington at 2:39 of the second period of the Caps’ game against St. Louis.
“A couple of days ago, somebody asked me, ‘Do you think about it?’” says Ovechkin. “Of course. It’s a huge number, and no one ever did it in NHL history. And to be the first player to ever do it, it’s a special moment in NHL history. It’s nice that it’s over, and it’s nice to get it at home so the fans can be here. It’s pretty cool.”
Ovechkin’s previous goal came in the Caps’ previous win, back on Oct. 24 in Columbus. They scored one more goal on Wednesday (six) than they combined to score (five) in the four games in between Nos. 899 and 900.
So many of Ovechkin’s goals have come on his patented one-timer, and although he has buried a few backhanders over the years, this one was different. Binnington turned the puck over to Ovechkin, who then put it to Chychrun at the left point. Chychrun’s wrist shot missed wide, and Ovechkin retrieved it and – with his back to the net – slung a flat backhand shot into the net on the short side to make NHL history yet again.
“Pretty special moment there,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I didn’t have a great view of that one; I was looking sort of down. I knew the puck squirted to the corner, but it didn’t feel like he was going to throw it right to the net that quickly. I thought it was going to reset, so I looked away for a second.
“Next thing you know, he just spun and fired it at the net and it finds a way in. In true [Ovechkin] fashion, I think that’s among many qualities that he’s demonstrated over his career as a goal scorer and the different ways that he’s scored. There’s just another example of finding ways to score goals.
“Pucks hit things, and it gets thrown to the net and next thing you know it’s in the back of the net, and he’s got 900 goals in the NHL. Which is, you can’t even wrap your head around that, just saying that – 900 goals. It’s hard enough to score one, but 900 in this League is just truly amazing.”
Ovechkin’s goal also sparked a four-goal second period that sent Binnington to the end of the St. Louis bench, where he exchanged his mask for a ballcap and watched the rest of the proceedings with a glum visage after the Caps tuned him up for four goals on 15 shots in just 27:19 between the pipes.
The offensive outburst was part of a 6-1 thumping the Caps administered to the Blues.
Washington’s struggling power play outfit staked the team to a 1-0 lead at 9:50 of the first. Just nine seconds into the Caps’ first power play of the game, Tom Wilson – on the anniversary of his first NHL goal a dozen years ago – tipped home a John Carlson center point drive for a 1-0 lead.
The goal was set up by a pair of consecutive shifts by the Hendrix Lapierre and Nic Dowd lines, respectively, as the Caps had the Blues hemmed in their own end for two full shifts and then some; Washington had begun to send a third unit – the Dylan Strome line – onto the ice when the penalty was whistled. Three of the Blues on the ice at the time had been on the ice for at least 2:55 at that point.
Logan Thompson continued to make his case for the Team Canada entry in the 2026 Olympic games. Thompson had a light workload in the first, making just five saves. But his best stop of the frame came while the score was still 0-0; he thwarted Blues blueliner Philip Broberg on a timing play from just above the paint on the first shot on net for either team.
While his teammates were rolling up the score in the second, Thompson denied Oskar Sundqvist’s backhander from the top of the paint, and he made a key stop on Robert Thomas’ shot from the slot seconds later.
Ovechkin’s goal came early in the second, and his teammates poured over the bench to congratulate him and celebrate with him. Jakob Chychrun picked up the single assist on the momentous goal, the second of his three helpers in the game.
“It’s tough to find the words,” says Chychrun of being the only player in NHL history to collect an assist on a teammate’s 900th career goal. “Honestly, it’s just special. [Ovechkin] has been just a big, big bright spot in my life, and being able to be here with him and watch him do what he does, and be a part of it in a small, small way has been very special.
“I’m just cherishing the moment, soaking it all in and you just don’t want these moments to end.”
Ovechkin’s milestone marker touched off a scoring spree for the goal-hungry Capitals. Less than two minutes later, Anthony Beauvillier curled off the left wing half wall, pump faked Binnington on the forehand and then casually deposited a backhander into the yawning cage to make it a 3-0 game at 4:33. Binnington was still trying to make the stop on the pump fake shot that Beauvillier didn’t take.
When Carlson fired a shot home from the slot at 9:26, Binnington was done for the night, replaced by Joel Hofer.
Beauvillier baptized Hofer with a short side rip to the shelf at 16:20 of the second, expanding the lead to 5-0.
Thompson lost his shutout when Alexey Toropchenko scored a shorthanded goal just 37 seconds into the third period, but he limited the oppositon to two or fewer goals against for the ninth time in as many starts, pciking up his sixth win of the season (6-3-0).
Wilson got that one back for Washington at the nine-minute mark of the third, bagging his second goal of the game and his eighth of the season.
Washington’s win halted a four-game slide (0-3-1) and its six-goal eruption is its largest of the season to date. Caps defensemen had a hand in five of the six goals in the game; the other was unassisted. The Washington blueline combined for a goal and seven points on the night.
Two nights ago at home, the Blues halted a seven-game slide (0-5-2) by digging out of a 2-0 second-period hole to overcome the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2. Ovechkin’s goal sparked a runaway train of offense that ensured the Blues would not author a repeat comeback performance on this night.
“It was a lack of compete, a lack of defending the front of our net, and too loose with the puck,” laments Blues coach Jim Montgomery of his team’s second period performance.”
Ovechkin’s goal uplifted an already buzzing crowd, and Montgomery was asked whether that affected his team.
“I think it had a lot to do with their success,” he says. “For us, we didn’t handle the moment well enough, that’s for sure. My hat and congratulations go off; it’s an amazing feat, 900 goals in this League. Just saying that, I never thought someone would say that. What an amazing athlete and just a tremendous individual for the game of hockey. He has made the game great.”
Although Ovechkin’s longtime teammates like Carlson are well aware of that, even they believe that it’ll be years after their careers are in the books that they’ll finally be able to have the perspective needed to process the magnitude of the achievement.
“It's incredible,” says Carlson. “I mean, truly, I know it seems like after the rodeo that we've been on the last year or two, you get numb to it. But then you think about it, and it's just incredible what he's done. And being alongside him for so long, you've seen just so many milestones that it's insane, but just the history that will maybe never be touched again.
“So, it's extremely cool and special to be a part of it, to be playing in the games, and all the rest. These are moments that whenever everybody's done and retired, you'll remember these ones a lot more than a lot of other things.”
