Alex Ovechkin becomes fifth fastest player to score 500 goals (Video)

With a goal against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday, Alex Ovechkin is the fifth-fastest player to get to 500 career goals.

Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has always been known as one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history. When you put his goals scored in context with the rest of the league, he’s undeniably one of the most dominant goal scorers of all-time.

With his 500th career goal, he is now the 43rd player in league history to get 500 goals. That’s not all. He has taken the fifth-fewest games of any player to get to the 500 goal plateau by scoring his 500th goal in his 801st career game.

Hull is the only one of the four above Alex Ovechkin to spend less than five years playing in the 1980’s. The 80’s are viewed as the golden years of goal scoring so that’s quite impressive from Ovechkin. Also, when you look at his adjusted goal totals (which equalizes era effects), Ovechkin could be the most impressive goal scorer of all-time.

Ovechkin’s next milestone will be his 1,00th point. He has 931 points in 801 games including today’s game against the Senators. He will be the fourth Russian player with 1,000 career points. Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Mogilny, and Alexei Kovalev have also accomplished the feat. Ovechkin is also eight goals away from passing Sergei Fedorov’s career record for game winning goals by a Russian (93). Ovechkin’s 0.622 goals per game over his career trail only Pavel Bure’s 0.623.

Ovechkin’s Caps currently lead the Eastern Conference despite injuries to key players such as John Carlson, Brooks Orpik, and Jay Beagle.