Ovechkin Breaks The Caps Rookie Points Record (2/10/2006)

February 10, 2006 - Just 53 games into his NHL career, Alex Ovechkin was on the verge of history for the Capitals. With 66 points on the season already, the Caps' young superstar needed just two points to eclipse the franchise's rookie record of 67 set by Bobby Carpenter and Chris Valentine in the 1981-82 season. There was extra motivation to break the record too, as Ovechkin was looking to break out of a goal-scoring slump in which he had lit the lamp just once in his last eight games. In the first period, the Great 8 came out flying, showing off the speed and flair fans had come to love from the 20-year-old. Ovechkin got on the board in the second period with a power-play goal from his office to tie the record, and in the third he assisted on a Dainius Zubrus goal to set a new benchmark for Caps rookies with his 68th point. As with many games from his first season, however, his great performance was not enough to lift Washington past the Flyers, as the Capitals lost their 16th straight game at the Wachovia Center. Ovechkin would go on to obliterate the Caps rookie scoring records, finishing with not only the franchise record for points (106), goals (52), and assists (54) by a rookie but also the third-most points and goals by a rookie in NHL history. Since his magical rookie season, only Nicklas Backstrom has managed to surpass Ovechkin's rookie assist total or exceed Carpenter and Valentine's old points record (55 assists and 69 points in 2007-08), and even with solid debuts from players such as Ryan Leonard, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and John Carlson, no other Capitals rookie has come remotely close since. 1st Period - 0:00 - Comcast SportsNet "Agility, Power, Passion" Ovi commercial 0:30 - Shot 0:42 - Big hit on Freddy Meyer** 0:52 - Toe drag around Meyer and shot 1:25 - Sick between the legs move to get around Eric Desjardins 2:55 - Shot 3:13 - Draws penalty and tries to go through the whole Flyers team 4:15 - Joe B and Locker recap Ovi's first period 2nd Period - 4:57 - Shot and chances 5:39 - Goal, 67th point of season ties Caps rookie record 3rd Period - 7:27 - Shot 7:36 - Great pass to set up Zubrus for chance 7:55 - Fights through check from Darien Hatcher to set up Brendan Witt 8:22 - Nice pass to Jamie Heward for chance 8:39 - Assist on Zubrus goal, 68th point of season breaks Caps rookie record 9:35 - Burst of speed to chase down puck shorthanded 9:55 - Shorthanded chance 10:15 - Shot 10:21 - Final buzzer, Ovi tries to go through the Flyers again ** - For anyone curious why this hit is only shown as a replay, it was not shown during game action, instead the broadcast was showing Matt Pettinger on the bench. As you can hear in the audio there was a big hit on the glass at this time, I'm 99% certain it was this one. CSN showed the replay during the first intermission so it had to be in the first period, and Ovechkin was credited with a hit right around this time - https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreport.... More classic Ovechkin games -    • Classic Ovechkin Games