.74 – Alex Ovechkin’s current goals-per-game pace so far this season, which has him comfortably in the League’s goal-scoring lead with 37. Taken over the course of a full season, that would rank as the second-highest rate for Ovechkin in his career, behind only his torrid .79 goals-per-game rate back in 2007-08 (when he finished with a career-best 65 goals).
Only 32 players in NHL history have scored at a single-season rate of .74 goals per game or higher (min. 50 games played, with Ovechkin obviously being one of them), and Ovechkin is the only player to have done so in the 21st century; prior to his 2007-08 campaign, the last player to operate at such a clip was Pavel Bure back in 1999-00 (.78 g/gm). And should he continue at or increase this pace by the end of the season, he would be one of only 16 players to accomplish that feat more than once in their career.