For the latter half of the NHL season, all eyes have been on Alex Ovechkin and his pursuit to break Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record. Ovechkin made it to the summit on Sunday afternoon, scoring Goal #895 from his office on the power play against the New York Islanders to become the most prolific scorer of all-time. The Hurricanes know a thing or two about being victimized by The Great 8.
Alex Ovechkin's NHL career began in Raleigh on June 26, 2004. The Hurricanes hosted the 2004 NHL Entry Draft at the RBC Center, where their Southeast Division rival, the Washington Capitals, won the draft lottery and selected Ovechkin with the first pick. He'd have to endure the 2004-05 lockout before finally making his NHL debut in October 2005, almost 16 months later.
Ovechkin played his second road game in Raleigh, scoring his first road goal in a 7-2 victory for the Canes, which included the first NHL goal for the Hurricanes' Niklas Nordgren. This would be the first of many goals in Raleigh for the best goal scorer in league history. In his rookie campaign, Ovechkin had at least one point in seven of the eight meetings, including all four of his trips to Raleigh.
Milestones in the NHL are usually measured in hundreds. Every 100 goals or points is considered a big deal. The Canes were part of a milestone when Ovechkin knocked home his 400th career goal in December 2013. It wasn't anything spectacular, scoring an empty-net goal in the final seconds to ice a Capitals road victory.
Since the team relocated to North Carolina before the 1997-98 season, no player has played more games (92), scored more goals (52), or recorded more points (106) against the Carolina Hurricanes. The same can be said for every opponent to visit Raleigh. In 46 visits, Ovechkin has 32 goals and 56 points, leading all visitors.
When looking at his season-by-season breakdown against the Hurricanes, it's incredible the amount of damage he did. During his 20-year career, there were only three seasons Ovechkin didn't score at least once against Carolina. He was held to seven assists in five meetings in 2009-10, four assists in six games in 2011-12, and they didn't play in 2021 because of the COVID-shuffled divisions.
All of those totals are strictly from the regular season. Alex Ovechkin had a pretty good series against the Hurricanes when they met in the first round in 2019. Ovechkin scored four goals in the seven-game series against Carolina, including two during the three games in Raleigh. His nine points were tied with Jaccob Slavin for the most in the series as the Canes won in seven games.
That we got to see the day someone finally surpassed Wayne Gretzky is remarkable. I didn't think we'd see it happen this season, but the hotter Alex Ovechkin got down the stretch, the more I realized it was going to happen. It's an incredible moment that everyone will remember where they were when it happened. Most importantly, it didn't happen against the Carolina Hurricanes.