After a protracted away series, in which Washington The Capitals won three out of five possible victories and noticeably improved their position in the fight for getting into the playoffs; the hockey players of the capital club returned home, where they immediately faced a meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Caps' matches against the Leafs are known for their high-scoring games. The last time two teams scored less than five goals in a game was more than six years ago. On the other hand, it would be strange to expect something different, since both clubs boast the main snipers of our time.
Alexander Ovechkin has long staked his claim as the main and best goalscorer of the 21st century, and in the next couple of years the Russian may well become the best sniper in the history of the National Hockey League. However, Auston Matthews is already called Ovi’s main successor. The American forward of the Maple Leafs and the most famous mustache of the modern NHL amazes with his rate of fire and is already ahead of Alexander’s schedule in goals.
On the eve of the next face-to-face meeting, Ovechkin gave American journalists several comments about Matthews. The Toronto forward has every chance of repeating and surpassing the Russian’s goalscoring achievement in one regular season. Ovi is still the only NHL player in the 21st century who managed to score 65 goals in the championship. In total, only 12 hockey players have reached this mark in the entire history of the league. Alexander is confident that Matthews will achieve this achievement. Moreover, the leader of the Capitals wished the American to “shoot” 70 goals, which has not happened since the 1992/93 season, when Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny scored 76 goals each.
“»What he is doing is great. I I'm happy for him. I hope he beats my achievement. Maybe he'll even score 70 goals, who knows. How many goals does he have already? 55? How many games left? 15. He's close to it. I'm rooting for him. Auston is special player. It's all fun to watch. I'm sure the fans will be happy when he hits 70 goals in a season,» Ovechkin said.
Unfortunately for Alexander, “Washington” and all fans of the capital’s club, Matthews heard the Russian’s message and scored a goal already in the 16th second of the meeting with his first shot on target. In the second period, the American hit the Caps goal twice more, but instead of a hat-trick, he ended up scoring a double — his third goal was canceled after a successful challenge by the coaching staff of Spencer Carbery for offside. However, Matthews added three more assists to his two goals and helped Toronto win a landslide victory. Now Auston has 57 goals in 14 matches before the end of the regular season.
As for Ovechkin, Alexander didn’t waste any time in the match against Toronto. The Russian once again reminded everyone that he is the best sniper in modern hockey history and took two more steps towards the main league record.
In the middle of the second period, Ovi performed a real classic, sending the puck into the goal with a one-timer from his office…
… and at the beginning of the third 20 minutes he effectively completed the Caps' 3-on-1 counterattack.
For Ovechkin, this double was already the second in a row and 171st in his entire career in NHL championships. Over the last three matches, Alexander scored five goals, for the entire season — 23. Thanks to two goals in the game with Toronto, the 38-year-old Russian caught up with Joe Thornton and shared 13th place with him in the list of top scorers in league history (both 1539 points). As for the sniper pursuit of Wayne Gretzky, Ovi has 50 (!) goals left to score to reach clear first place in the rankings.
Before we know it, the countdown from ten will begin.
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