Ovechkin Still Looking for 1st NHL Goal This Season

Good morning. The Hockey Recap prediction team kept their hot hand going with 53.85% of yesterday’s poll voters correctly predicting a Montreal Canadiens win last night — more on that below.

We hope you all got a good night's sleep, because you're going to need it for the marathon of NHL hockey that is about to take place tonight!

- Brandon Rubeo & Kevin Allen

Today’s Lineup:

• Ovechkin still looking for 1st goal this season

• Jake Allen leads Habs to 3-1 win over Sabres

• All 32 teams face off in ‘Frozen Frenzy’ tonight

• And a lot more… 👇

Ovechkin Still Looking for 1st NHL Goal This Season

When Alex Ovechkin went two games in a row recently without producing a shot on goal, Washington Capitals fan concern fell just short of demanding a Congressional Investigation.

The Russian scoring sensation has played 1,351 NHL games and that never happened before.

Ovechkin, 38, has registered a shot on goal in 1,332 of his 1,351 games. That’s right: he’s only failed to fire a shot on net 19 times in 19 years. That means he finds the net at least once in 98.5% of his games.

As if that isn’t enough to worry fans, Ovechkin hasn’t scored a goal going into the Capitals’ fifth game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs. If you go back to last season, Ovechkin has gone nine games without a goal.

This is a player who scored 42 goals in 73 games last season. He has scored 40 or more 13 times in his career.

That’s why Ovechkin needs only 73 goals to break Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals. That record seemed unbreakable until Ovechkin started stringing together 40-, 50- and 60-goal seasons.

Now, there’s wonder around the league about whether his age is starting to be a factor.

That’s not what TSN analyst Craig Button sees.

Button said Ovechkin has lost the enthusiasm he has for scoring goals. “He doesn’t look like a player who is driving the play,” Button said.

Button doesn’t believe Ovechkin has lost his energy for good. He has five shots on goal in his last outing against Montreal.

COP SOME BROTHERLY LOVE 🤝

⭐️ Jake Allen earns first star as Canadiens beat the Sabres 3-1 for 2nd consecutive win. The 33-year-old netminder allowed just one goal against midway through the 1st but otherwise shut the Sabres buzzing offense down, collecting 36 saves. Habs’ defender Justin Barron opened scoring early in the 1st, Brendan Gallagher broke the tie and scored the eventual game-winner early in the 3rd, and Tanner Pearson scored a power-play tally with just over 3 mins remaining in regulation to seal the win. Read more →

📺 All 32 NHL teams faceoff tonight in the ‘Frozen Frenzy.’ And unlike other busy days on the calendar, opening puck drops are staggered so no two games begin at the same time, therefore you shouldn’t have to watch an intermission report if you don’t want to — is the NHL finally starting to get their $h!t together?! Plus, John Buccigross and Kevin Weekes will be hosting the “whip-around” Frozen Frenzy show, think "NFL Red Zone" but for the NHL. Read more, including matchups and channels →

Who holds the NHL’s all-time record for most shots on goal in a single NHL season?

GOALIES WILL HATE YOU FOR THIS 👇

• Drills for defenseman to work on finding a shooting lane

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Phil Esposito holds the NHL’s all-time record with 550 shots on goal in the 1970-71 season 🤯