Injury delays Ovechkin, but the hunt for Gretzky’s record continues

The 2024-25 season got off to a slow start for Ovi. Having failed to score in his first three games, one had to wonder if he would ever be able to join Gretzky…

This question dogged Ovechkin throughout the 2023-24 season, when he scored just 7 goals in his first 33 games. Including 2 in his first 12…

Last year, Ovi scored 31 goals, his worst career total in a full season…

And the 2024-25 season got off to the same start: no goals in its first three games, enough to sow doubt.

But then Ovechkin got going: 5 goals in 6 games by the end of October.

Then came November: 10 goals in 9 games! Ovi was clearly back.

On November 17 and 18, Alex Ovechkin scored 5 goals in 2 games…

…before being injured in the November 18 game against the Utah Hockey Club.

The bottom line? Ovechkin is expected to be out for 4 to 6 weeks…

The current state of the race shows Gretzky, still in first place, with 894 career goals…

Whereas Ovechkin has 868. At this rate, Alex Ovechkin would have joined Gretzky somewhere next February.

To be continued. Ovechkin should indeed join Gretzky, but maybe not this year!