The “GR8 Chase” is headed to Honda Center, as Alex Ovechkin will arrive on Katella Ave. Tuesday with 886 career goals, eight shy of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894.
It’ll also be yet another critical game for the Ducks as they seek to make up ground in the playoff race against the Eastern Conference’s top team, the Washington Capitals.
Ducks coach Greg Cronin coached in the East three different times, under former Ducks bench boss Randy Caryle in Toronto and during two stints as an assistant with the New York Islanders, whom the Ducks beat convincingly on Sunday. He recalled a 2015 playoff series, where Ovechkin’s Caps edged his Isles in seven games, and said Ovechkin was still hammering his signature one-timers today, at age 39.
“He’s a beast of a man. He’s a big, 230-pound power forward that’s got a snarl to the way he plays. He’s got a high IQ as well. Offensively, he’s a very deliberate player,” Cronin said.
Ovechkin has 12 goals and 30 points in 26 career games against the Ducks, though he’s done far worse to other opponents in the West (hello, Minnesota Wild) and tormented most of his rivals in the East.
The Caps’ captain won the Stanley Cup in 2018 and after reshaping an aging roster on the fly, Washington is back on the shortest list of contenders for 2025. Entering Monday’s action, they were tied with the Winnipeg Jets in the Presidents’ Trophy race, with both clubs having earned 92 points to date.
“They have a really good, balanced team. They’re one of the biggest teams in the NHL, so we’re certainly going to have our hands full,” Cronin said.
The Ducks, however, have already had their hands full in a more positive sense, as their mitts overflow with young talent.
In addition to their existing core of their own prospects, 2024 trade acquisition Cutter Gauthier and call-up Sam Colangelo, both of whom debuted in the final breaths of last season, have helped invigorate the play of Mason McTavish. His lukewarm finish to 2024 has given way to a scorching 2025 in which the power forward has led the Ducks in scoring while offering them dynamism and grit simultaneously.
“For (McTavish), it’s about his skating and getting into those areas where he can actually deliver a shot, and the foundation to his game is his ability to protect the pucks on the wall,” Cronin said. “He’s really good in traffic, so when he’s doing those things, that’s where the scoring is going to show up.”
Colangelo, who has scored five of his six goals this season in the past four games, refined his game in San Diego, where Coach Matt McIlvane and the Gulls have put last season’s slog in their rearview mirror to become one of the hottest teams in the American Hockey League. Both Colangelo and Cronin credited McIlvane, including after the win over the Islanders, with helping to enrich and accelerate the build that began in 2022 when GM Pat Verbeek came aboard.
There’ll be little rest for the young and weary, however, as the Ducks will be on the ground against Washington and then go right back up in the air, flying to Salt Lake City for Wednesday’s firefight with Utah HC, whom they defeated narrowly in both prior meetings. The Ducks took both games by the same score, 5-4, one in overtime and the other in a shootout.