One of the biggest storylines of the NHL season is whether or not Washington Capitals forward, Alex Ovechkin, will break Wayne Gretzky's record of career goals, which currently stands at 894 goals. Ovechkin is closing in on that record, and as of March 4th, he has 884 career goals. The Los Angeles Kings have a game against the Washington Capitals this month, and it begs the question of whether Ovechkin could break the record against one of Gretzky's former teams.
The Los Angeles Kings traded with the Edmonton Oilers prior to the 1988-89 season for Wayne Gretzky, which was at the time (and may still be) the most shocking trade in the league's history. Gretzky was already the best player in the league and at only 27 years old was in the prime of his career.
He would play eight seasons for the Kings and during that time he had 246 of his 894 career goals with Los Angeles. Gretzky would have back-to-back seasons with 40 or more goals before his totals slowly decreased during the remainder of his time with the Kings. The Kings would eventually trade Gretzky to the St. Louis Blues during the 1995-96 season before he finished his NHL career with three seasons with the New York Rangers.
Will Alex Ovechkin break Wayne Gretzky's record against the Los Angeles Kings?
The Washington Captials have four more games before they are scheduled to play the Los Angeles Kings, and currently, Ovechkin is 10 goals from tying Gretzky and 11 from breaking his record. It seems unlikely that Ovechkin could close that gap between now and the game against the Kings, but it isn't unrealistic.
In the past five games, Ovechkin has had five goals, including a hat trick against the Edmonton Oilers. Meanwhile, the next four games are against teams that are allowing three or more goals per game (New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Seattle Kraken, and Anaheim Ducks) which certainly could help his chances.
The game on March 13th could be a historic game for the NHL and would be an interesting storyline to see Alex Ovechkin break Wayne Gretzky's record against one of his former teams.