Alex Ovechkin Scores Goal No. 700 in a Loss to the Devils

With a searing slap shot that was equal parts force and precision, Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin on Saturday became the eighth player in N.H.L. history with 700 career goals, reaching the magic number in a 3-2 loss to the Devils at Prudential Center.

Ovechkin went into the game with 699 career goals and his 700th, about five minutes into the third period, tied the game at 2-2 ahead of Damon Severson’s game-winner with 1 minute 59 seconds left.

Ovechkin, 34, now sits 194 goals behind Wayne Gretzky’s career record of 894, which seems attainable given his consistent scoring over his 15-season career. He is one of only four N.H.L. players to have scored 40 goals in 10 seasons, and he has already scored more goals (225) after his 30th birthday than Gretzky (188), who retired at age 38. The goal on Saturday gave Ovechkin 42 for this season, with 21 games remaining.

Ovechkin netted the 700th goal on a slap shot from the right circle that he placed over the shoulder of Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. The referees stopped the game and allowed the Capitals to swarm Ovechkin on the ice. Players from both teams then cleared the ice, allowing Ovechkin to salute the cheering road crowd as both teammates and opponents slapped their sticks against the boards in recognition of the goal.

“It’s a special moment,” Ovechkin told reporters. “When you get closer you start thinking when it’s going to happen. Finally, it’s over so we don’t have to talk about it anymore. We’re going to move on.”

Ovechkin scored 100 goals over the previous two seasons, and is on a pace for 57 this season. At the rate he has scored over the course of his career, he would surpass Gretzky’s total in 319 games, and at the rate he has scored since the 2017-18 season he would set the record in 306 contests.

“I remember talking about Gretzky, his records and how many goals he scored, and everybody said that was unbeatable,” said the former defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who frequently matched up with Ovechkin in both pro and international play. “Now, if Ovi stays healthy and he can play four or five more years, it’s reachable.”

There are now seven players ahead of Ovechkin in career scoring — Mike Gartner (708), Phil Esposito (717), Marcel Dionne (731), Brett Hull (741), Jaromir Jagr (766), Gordie Howe (801) and Gretzky (894).

On his way to No. 700, Ovechkin recently passed several of the game’s scoring greats, including Mark Messier (in front of an Ottawa crowd chanting, “Ovi!”) and Steve Yzerman, the former Detroit Red Wings center who is now the club’s general manager.

“You’ve had a tremendous career to date. It looks like you’re going strong and you might play forever,” Yzerman said in a video addressed to Ovechkin. “If you ever do break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record for the most goals in the league,” Yzerman added, “after watching your Stanley Cup celebrations, I want to be invited to your party.”

Those celebrations, after the Capitals beat the Vegas Golden Knights in five games, included revelry at a nightclub and playing in a public fountain.

“Even after that many goals, every goal he scores is like his first goal in the N.H.L.; he’s jumping around and he’s very excited,” said Jari Kurri, who retired as the N.H.L.’s leading European-born goal scorer, since passed by Teemu Selanne, Ovechkin and Jagr.

Ovechkin is best known for possessing perhaps the most dangerous one-timer in hockey history and for the childlike joy with which he celebrates. The shot has factored into his extraordinary success on the power play, where he has frequently double-shifted and played the full two minutes. His 259 power-play goals rank third, and it seems a mere formality that he will break Dave Andreychuk’s record of 274.

Ovechkin was reared by athletic parents in a hardscrabble neighborhood on the fringe of Moscow. His mother, Tatiana, was one of the great point guards in Europe, winning two Olympic gold medals in basketball with the Soviet Union. His father, Mikhail, was a professional soccer player, and his oldest brother, Sergei, was an accomplished wrestler. Sergei died after a car accident when Alex was 10, and Ovechkin frequently celebrates goals by kissing his fingers and pointing skyward in memory of his big brother.

Ovechkin was selected No. 1 in the N.H.L. draft of 2004, just before the league lost a full season to a labor dispute. When he finally made his league debut, in 2005-6, he scored 52 goals and collected 106 points, which both rank him third for an N.H.L. rookie.

In his third season, Ovechkin led the N.H.L. in goals (65) and points (112), and won the first of his three Hart Trophies as the league’s most valuable player. He became the first left wing to finish as the scoring champion since Bobby Hull in 1965-66.

Those 65 goals remain his high for a season, and they made him the first player to score 60 goals since 1995-96. Ovechkin has led the N.H.L. in goals seven more times, surpassing Bobby Hull’s record for goal-scoring titles.

Ovechkin has been extremely durable, missing just 31 games over 15 seasons, and the Capitals have dominated their division, winning it nine times in Ovechkin’s career.

But postseason success long eluded them, often at the hands of Ovechkin’s fellow 2005-6 arrival, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, the player with whom Ovechkin is constantly compared. Ovechkin has never won a medal at the Olympics, while Crosby has twice won gold with the Canadian team, and Crosby won three Stanley Cups before Ovechkin captured his first.

In 2017-18, after the Capitals lost considerable talent in free agency and had gone from title favorites to quiet contenders, they won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. Ovechkin, who had elevated his fiery leadership and defensive play in addition to leading the league in playoff goals, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ M.V.P.

“I think it totally changed his legacy, there’s no doubt in my mind,” said Daniel Briere, who faced Ovechkin’s Capitals in the playoffs with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2008. “Everybody saw him as a great hockey player, but everybody wondered how committed to winning he was or if he was more about himself.

“It was not just that he led them or that they won the Cup, it was the way he did it,” Briere added.

With 80 points, Ovechkin and the Capitals are tied with Pittsburgh atop the Metropolitan Division, and have designs on another Stanley Cup. The larger picture, however, is whether Ovechkin — known as Alexander the Great and the Great Eight — can ultimately engrave his name above that of Gretzky, the Great One.

“It’s still a long way away,” said Kurri, who skated alongside Gretzky in Edmonton and Los Angeles. “We don’t know what’s going through his head, what goals he has, how long he can stay healthy or if he’s motivated.”

After going through the variables and factors in Ovechkin’s potential quest for the record, Kurri paused and added, “If there’s a player who can do it, he’s the guy.”