(Caps Outsider)
With his 498th and 499th goal of his career on Saturday, Alex Ovechkin passed Glenn Anderson for sole possession of 43rd place on the NHL’s all-time goal-scorer’s list.
While hitting certain round numbers, like 50 goals in a season, or 1000 points in a career, is a reason to celebrate, Ovechkin’s soon-to-happen accomplishment will eventually become just another line on a stat-sheet of greater milestones that don’t just involve numbers divisible by 100.
I mean, once he scores his 500th goal, Ovechkin will be in 42nd place all time, tied with the great Flame, Lanny McDonald:
Now, don’t tell me you’re not even more excited, now!
Other players he’ll soon pass: Joe Mullen who has 502 career goals, Peter Bondra who has 503 (folks forget that Bondra scored non-Caps goals), and the late Jean Beliveau with 507. My sense is, as Ovechkin rockets up the list, he likely won’t keep the puck that pushes him past Pat Verbeek for 34th place all time, for instance.
But why not? Is scoring his 500th career goal more of an accomplishment than scoring his 574th, when he passes Mike Bossy? Nope, and we won’t celebrate the same way. (If anything, we’ll be reminded that Bossy only took 752 games to accomplish that).
That’s okay, though. This what we do – celebrate numeric milestones. It’s not bad or wrong, but arbitrary in the sense that each number beyond that is actually better. At best, toasting a number with zeros on the end is nice, but at worst, it’s a form of OCD.
Ovi, once you score your 500th, here’s to 500 more. But if you can’t do that, the non-arbitrary milestone – or record in this case – we’re rooting for is 895. Us Caps fans believe if anyone can do it, it’s you.
If not, we’ll always have this:
