When it’s all said and done, Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin could go down as the greatest goal scorer in the history of the National Hockey League.
As he continues his quest to catch Wayne Gretzky on the all-time scoring list, former Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau loves seeing The Great 8 continue to excel all these years later … except when it’s at the expense of his current club, the Vancouver Canucks.
“If he played against me every day, he’d probably have 110 goals a year,” Boudreau said of Ovechkin last season. “He gets up for it. He marvels me at his age.”
The Canucks came to town for an early-season matchup hoping to see Boudreau earn his 600th career victory and, after 40 minutes of action, it looked like Vancouver would emerge victorious. But the Capitals, led by Ovechkin, responded with four third-period goals en-route to an entertaining 6-4 win.
Ovechkin, who had no goals and just one assist in his first three games, torched the Canucks for two goals and two assists. And much to the dismay of his former coach, the 37-year-old now has 23 points (11 goals and 12 assists) in 13 games against Boudreau-led teams. Additionally, Lars Eller, John Carlson and Dylan Strome all scored their first goal of the season for Washington in the win.One area of concern: forward Connor Brown, who the Caps acquired this offseason in a trade with Ottawa, suffered an apparent lower-body injury and could be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
