34 – Number of days remaining until the 2016-17 season. But it’s also…
…the number of points needed by Alex Ovechkin to hit 1000 in his career. Ovechkin is one of just five players with a reasonable shot of hitting the millennium mark this year, joining Henrik Sedin (970 points), Shane Doan (945), Daniel Sedin (942) and Sidney Crosby (938). There are currently only five other active players with at least 1000 career points in the NHL.
Of the 83 players to reach the milestone in NHL history, 52 of them have achieved it in fewer than 1000 games played; Ovechkin enters the 2016-17 season sitting at 839 games played. If he gets there this season, he will be among the 30 fastest players in history to do so. A 34-in-34 run to start the season would make him the 23rd-fastest (behind Gilbert Perreault); if he plays all 82 games and doesn’t reach 1000 points until game 82, he’ll edge out Bobby Clarke to be the 29th-fastest.
Also of note: as the franchise’s leading point-scorer, he will be the first player in franchise history to score 1000 points as a Cap, and only the fifth to hit the milestone in a Caps jersey (joining Adam Oates, Dale Hunter, Phil Housley and Brian Bellows).
Let the Milestone Watch commence!