Even though he was coming off his 7th career and 3rd straight 50-goal season, there were questions as to whether the 31-year-old could continue the pace. Early on at least, it looked like there was a chance. A brief slow start that could be partially attributed to the World Cup of Hockey in September (where the Russian national team of course fell victim to bad coaching and roster decisions), he scored in 4 straight games. After a hat trick against St. Louis on November 13, Ovechkin was once again on a 50-goal pace with 12 goals in 19 games. Unfortunately, what looked like a possible ramping up of offense for the Great 8 turned into a 7 game goal-less drought. Ovechkin quickly fell out of the Rocket Richard race, but there was still speculation that he could not only come back to win the award again, but possibly even hit 50 for the 8th time. After all he had about the same number of goals as he did heading into the Christmas break as he had the past 2 seasons, and in both of those he exploded after the 25th. He headed into the new year with 17 goals. It was 4 less than the season before when he scored 50, but the exact same as in 2014-15 when he scored 53. January wasn't horrible, but it wasn't as explosive as some had hoped either. Even so, January still had some good moments for the Russian Machine. On January 9th in Montreal he tied Maurice "Rocket" Richard with his 544th career goal, and in the next game against Pittsburgh he became the 83rd player in NHL history to record 1000 points. After a bye-week in mid-February, Ovechkin scored a goal in the second game after the break, but wouldn't score again for a career-high 10 games. On March 28th against Minnesota he scored his 17th career hat trick, recording a hat trick against both St. Louis and Minnesota in back to back seasons. Also like the last season, Ovechkin's last goal was a hat trick goal. Only instead of it being in his last game it came with 7 games to go. Ovechkin had 33 goals in the 58 games that were not part of the three 7+ game goal droughts. Incredibly, despite these many long droughts, including the longest goal-less streak of his career, he still managed 2 hat tricks and did not have a career-low goal total. With Ovechkin unable to hit 50 in 2016-17, the league was without a 50-goal scorer for the first time since 2003-04. The NHL's leading scorer Sidney Crosby was still 6 goals short of the mark. Ovechkin's, and for that matter the entire league's days of 50-goal scorers may be over for the time being. Maybe one of the new young snipers such as Laine, Matthews, or McDavid could one day hit the mark, but it looks like it will be an even bigger accomplishment than before. And I wouldn't rule out a couple more 40-goal seasons from Ovi. You may be thinking age has finally caught up to him, but if we've learned anything over the last 12 years, it's that you can't rule him out.
1 - October 18, 2016 vs. Colorado Avalanche - 0:01
2 - October 20, 2016 vs. Florida Panthers - 0:41
3 - October 22, 2016 vs. New York Rangers - 1:02*
4 - October 26, 2016 vs. Edmonton Oilers - 1:37
5 - November 3, 2016 vs. Winnipeg Jets - 2:12
6 - November 3, 2016 vs. Winnipeg Jets - 2:48
7 - November 5, 2016 vs. Florida Panthers - 3:33
8 - November 16, 2016 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins - 4:04*
9 - November 20, 2016 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets - 5:00
10 - November 23, 2016 vs. St. Louis Blues - 5:33
11 - November 23, 2016 vs. St. Louis Blues - 6:27
12 - November 23, 2016 vs. St. Louis Blues - 7:18 - 16th career hat trick
13 - December 11, 2016 vs. Vancouver Canucks - 8:47 - 200th career power play goal
14 - December 16, 2016 vs. Carolina Hurricanes - 9:33
15 - December 23, 2016 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning - 10:24
16 - December 27, 2016 vs. New York Islanders - 11:12
17 - December 31, 2016 vs. New Jersey Devils - 11:41
18 - January 3, 2017 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs - 12:29
19 - January 9, 2017 vs. Montreal Canadiens - 13:25
20 - January 11, 2017 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins - 14:20 - 1000th career point
21 - January 11, 2017 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins - 15:48
22 - January 21, 2017 vs. Dallas Stars - 16:50
23 - January 26, 2017 vs. New Jersey Devils - 17:34*
24 - January 31, 2017 vs. New York Islanders - 18:27
25 - February 1, 2017 vs. Boston Bruins - 19:10 - 550th career goal
26 - February 7, 2017 vs. Carolina Hurricanes - 20:09
27 - February 19, 2017 vs. New York Rangers - 20:45
28 - March 14, 2017 vs. Minnesota Wild - 21:30
29 - March 21, 2017 vs. Calgary Flames - 22:06
30 - March 25, 2017 vs. Arizona Coyotes - 22:39
31 - March 28, 2017 vs. Minnesota Wild - 23:31
32 - March 28, 2017 vs. Minnesota Wild - 24:29
33 - March 28, 2017 vs. Minnesota Wild - 25:24 - 17th career hat trick
* - highlight reel goal
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