November is a month that features a holiday focusing on giving thanks. Since 2005, Washington Capitals fans have been doing just that for the ping-pong ball that gave the Caps the first pick in the 2004 Entry Draft. With it, they selected a player who would become the greatest goal scorer of his generation, if not all of NHL history. Here is how Novembers unfolded in the career of Alex Ovechkin.
November by the Numbers
The bloom of the new season that comes with October has fallen, and November can be a long distraction with the approach of the year-end holidays. But even with the distractions, Alex Ovechkin has been an extraordinarily productive player. Here are some of the most noteworthy facts and numbers with respect to Alex Ovechkin’s goal-scoring performance in November:
The Highlight Game
When Alex Ovechkin took the ice against the Dallas Stars on November 19, 2015, he was stuck in a four-game streak without a goal, failing to light the lamp since scoring against the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 7th to tie Sergei Fedorov with 483 career goals, most ever by a Russian-born NHL player. He might have had the record in that same game against the Maple Leafs, but he had a third period goal reversed on a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference. He might have had the record in the next game against the Detroit Red Wings, but despite putting 15 shots on Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek he could not score in a 1-0 loss to Detroit. He might have had the record in the next game against the Philadelphia Flyers, but once again he lost the record-breaking goal to a coach’s challenge.
Against Dallas, though, he finally made one count. With Dallas holding a 2-1 lead as the clock ticked under 13 minutes in regulation, Ovechkin made a bee line for the net as T.J. Oshie circled out of the left wing corner with the puck. Oshie tried to thread a pass through the hashmarks, but it pinballed its way to the goalmouth to the right of goalie Kari Lehtonen. The puck bled out from the blue paint where Ovechkin was waiting to stuff it home for his 484th career goal and become the top Russian-born goal scorer in NHL history.