Washington Capitals head-to-head matches over the past few years and the Edmonton Oilers have acquired the same sign of the confrontation between Alexander Ovechkin and Connor McDavid — the main sniper of the 21st century and the best hockey player in the world at the moment. Both are united by Wayne Gretzky. More precisely, his numerous records, which are rewritten over and over again in their names by Ovi and Makdi. McDavid, for example, has made a serious bid to approach Gretzky's career NHL scoring record. Ovechkin is trying to break the Canadian's sniper record. Only the lazy do not follow his pursuit.
«He has a chance. He is by far the greatest goalscorer of our generation. Maybe of all time. He definitely has a chance. If you can shoot as hard as Ovi, and if you are as big and powerful as he, then you can play for a long time and score a lot,” McDavid said on the eve of the next face-to-face meeting with Ovechkin.
However, today the scoring extravaganza was a great success for Connor. In the match against Washington, the Edmonton leader scored three points in a game for the 13th time this season. Or it could even be four — one assist was taken away from the Canadian, transferring the puck from Evan Bouchard to Zach Hyman, who scored a hat-trick. McDavid, who stalled somewhat at the start of the season, is already breathing down Nikita Kucherov. In the overall scoring standings of the championship, Connor has 106 points, Kucherov has 107. Nathan MacKinnon (115) remains the sole leader, but McD is quite capable of reaching him. No one will be surprised by this.
As for Ovechkin, Alexander was maximally aimed at someone else's goal. In the match with Edmonton, the Russian made as many as seven shots on target. Only Leon Draisattle has the same number, but for the Oilers' elite forward, half of those seven came on one power play. Of Ovi’s seven throws, at least two should have reached the target, or even all three. The Washington captain could have scored a hat-trick today. This is the best case scenario. But he definitely scored a goal or even two. However, Stuart Skinner was categorically against this arrangement.
Edmonton's Canadian goalkeeper had incredible courage in today's game and even missed shots that should have resulted in a goal. From Ovechkin as well. In North America, these two saves were called a real robbery by Skinner. The Oilers' goalie literally prevented Ovi from getting one or two steps closer to Gretzky's record. The Canadian did his job efficiently, you can’t argue with that.
However, Skinner still missed the Russian today. But not from Ovechkin, but from the one who is usually called the heir to the leader of the Capitals — Ivan Miroshnichenko. The young forward is gradually securing his place in the main team of the capital. Today he scored his second goal in his NHL career. And what! Ivan made a stunning shot, and the loud ringing sound from the post, which the puck hit, was heard even in Moscow.
Ovechkin, by the way, didn’t leave the court today either. Alexander took part in Connor McMichael's goal and, having chalked up an assist, brought the total number of points scored in his career in the NHL championships to 1534. Thus, Ovi surpassed Mark Recchi (1533 points in 1652 games) and moved into 14th place place in the list of top scorers in the history of the league championships. There are five points to the 13th position in the ranking, which is occupied by Joe Thornton.
However, this still does not help Washington very much. The Capitals ended up suffering a major defeat, and their already slim chances of making the playoffs became even lower.