WASHINGTON, DC – The Great Eight and the Washington Capitals, everyone.
Alex Ovechkin notched his 880th, 881st and 882nd career goals to pick up a hat trick in a 7-3 defeat for the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena, bringing the Russian forward within 13 goals of surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record of 894 goals.
The Capitals scored five unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead into the third period after Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring just 1:42 into the opening frame on the power play with his 42nd goal of the season, but it was Ovechkin and Washington’s day and a difficult afternoon for the Blue & Orange.
“I thought it was an excellent start. Good pace, both teams skating well, chances both ends, and the goaltenders made some really big saves, but then they continued that pace and we dropped,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They were able to just make a lot more plays. They were out skating us and we looked like the slow team.”
No. 8 completed his hat trick into an empty net with 3:38 left in regulation, combining for nine points alongside linemates Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas, who recorded a goal and two assists and three helpers respectively in the Capitals’ victory.
Defencemen John Carlson and Jakob Chychrun each had multi-point afternoons for the League leaders, who improved to 38-11-8 this season.
“We still gave up a lot of odd man rushes, a lot of line rushes and a lot of breakaway here and there,” Corey Perry said. “You give the best goal scorer in the world that kind of time he’s going to put in the back of the net. So we can clean those things up and move forward.”
“They come at you wave after wave,” Connor McDavid added. “They got four lines and six D men, and they just roll them. They’re an impressive group. Obviously, they’re having a great year.”
The Oilers dropped their third straight game overall and second consecutive matinée coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break and sit 34-19-4 on the season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner added Edmonton’s other two goals, while goaltender Calvin Pickard was solved six times on 33 shots.
Edmonton will continue its five-game road trip on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Everybody knows how we can play, how good this group is when everybody’s playing the right way, and the last probably six-and-a-half periods are not the right way,” Perry said. “And if you recognize that, you can start to start to build and start to look up.”
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