Ovechkin Scores His 1,000th Goal as the Washington Capitals Fight for a Playoff Spot
Allison Bennett
Managing Editor
On March 22, Washington Capitals’ captain Alexander Ovechkin scored his 1,000th career goal in a game against the Colorado Avalanche becoming only the second player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to achieve this milestone. Ovechkin’s goal was his 26th of the 2025-2026 season during his 21st NHL season.
Wayne Gretzky was the first player to reach 1000 goals, having scored 1016 combined goals, with 894 being in the regular season and 122 in the playoffs, ESPN reports. Last season, Ovechkin passed Gretzky’s regular-season record and now has 923 goals during the regular season in his career. Gretzky still holds the record for postseason goals with 122; Ovechkin only being 12th on that list with 77 playoff goals.
After his goal, Ovechkin said, “It’s always nice to reach something, and it was an important goal as well.” Goal No. 1,000 was scored from his usual power-play spot on a one-timer. Ovechkin holds the NHL record for power-play goals with 330 but has only scored five power-play goals this season.
The primary assist was given to Dylan Strome, who also assisted on Ovechkin’s 895th goal, with the secondary assist going to rookie Cole Hutson. Hutson was playing in just his third NHL game after signing with the Capitals a week earlier, cataloging his first NHL assist.
This milestone came without a victory, as Avalanche forward Brock Nelson scored his 32nd goal of the season 1:22 into overtime to give Colorado the win.
Ovechkin stated, “Right now for us, every game is a seventh game. Collect the points and don’t look at the standings.”
With less than three weeks left in the 2025-2026 regular season, the races to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are remarkably tight. In the Eastern Conference, there are six teams within three points of each other for three spots, with five of those teams just two points apart.
The Colorado Avalanche became the first team in the NHL to clinch a playoff spot and holds the league’s best record at 46-13-10. Washington, 35-27-9, picked up one point, moving within five points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the NHL reports.
Playoff qualification is based on regular-season points, with teams receiving 2 points for a win, 1 point for an overtime/shootout loss, and 0 points for a regulation loss. Only 16 of the 32 NHL teams get a spot in the playoffs, 8 from each conference. The top three teams in each division (Atlantic, Metropolitan, Pacific, Central) automatically qualify, while the wild card spots go to the two teams with the best point totals in each conference outside the top 3 spots.
As of March 30, 2026, the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars are the only two teams to have clinched playoff spots, while the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks have been officially eliminated.
Currently, the Washington Capitals have a 6.5% chance of clinching a playoff spot. The Washington Capitals appear to be undergoing a significant rebuild, accelerated by the trades of veterans John Carlson and Nic Dowd ahead of the deadline. As Ovechkin’s tenure nears its end, the Capitals can be seen shifting towards a younger core that includes rookies, Ryan Leonard and Cole Huston.
Image courtesy of Getty Images.