Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is closing in on Wayne Gretzky’s career NHL regular-season record of 894 goals, one that has stood for more than a quarter-century.
It’s a number that was seemingly untouchable. Gretzky, considered arguably the greatest hockey player of all time, set the mark with the New York Rangers in 1999 in his 20th and final season.
The 39-year-old Ovechkin has until the Capitals’ final regular-season game on April 17 to break it or wait for next year. He was two away, at 893 goals, after scoring during the Capitals’ game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, April 4, with Gretzky in attendance at D.C.’s Capital One Arena looking on.
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“It’s just a matter of time, whether it’s late this year, early next year, whenever,” Gretzky told NHL.com last September about Ovechkin breaking the mark. “I mean, he’s a great player. He’s a great goal scorer.”
Gretzky also holds the record for most career goals in the regular season and playoffs combined, with 1,016. Ovechkin sits in second place as well in that category, about 50 goals back.
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Gretzky won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, and also played for the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers. By contrast, Ovechkin has spent his entire pro career in Washington, D.C. A colorful personality off the ice, the Moscow native once portrayed a Russian spy in an ESPN commercial and swam in a public fountain with teammates to celebrate winning the Stanley Cup. Ovechkin, who led the Capitals to their first championship in 2018, already holds several NHL career records, including the most power play goals, most goalies scored upon and most goals with one team.
As he nears another, here are some of the most famous records in American sports.
Wayne Gretzky’s NHL assists and points record: 1,963 and 2,857
While Ovechkin is nearing Gretzky’s holy grail of goals, no one will likely touch Gretzky’s record of 1,963 assists and 2,857 total points.
To put that in perspective: If Gretzky had never scored a single goal in his entire career, he would still be the NHL all-time leader in points since goals and assists both count as one point in hockey. By comparison, the No. 2 all-time points leader is Jaromir Jagr, who tallied 766 goals and 1,155 assists during his career for a total of 1,921 points — or nearly 1,000 points shy of Gretzky.
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Wilt Chamberlain with the most points in an NBA game: 100
On March 2, 1962, the late Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the then-Philadelphia Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors) in a win over the New York Knicks. Chamberlain, one of NBA’s greatest centers, went 28 of 32 from the stripe despite being a career 50% free throw shooter.
It’s a record that has never been threatened. The late Kobe Bryant came the closest when he scored 81 points for the Los Angeles Lakers in a game against the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
Chamberlain was utterly dominant in his era. There have only been 15 70-plus point games in NBA history, and Chamberlain has six of them.
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Cal Ripken Jr. with the most consecutive MLB games played: 2,632
For 17 seasons, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. did not miss a single game. From May 1982 until September 1998, Ripken was an iron man, playing a stunning 2,632 consecutive games.
On Sept. 6, 1995, Ripken broke New York Yankees legendary first baseman Lou Gehrig’s then 59-year-old record of 2,130 straight games set in 1939, one that was believed to be unbreakable. For good measure, Ripken went on to play another 502 straight games after surpassing Gehrig.
His streak came to an end on Sept. 20, 1998, when he voluntarily chose to sit out Baltimore’s final home game of the season against the Yankees.
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Caitlin Clark as the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball: 3,951 points
In her final season at Iowa, Caitlin Clark became a household name, completely upending the basketball world. Her games became must-see TV, drawing in millions of new fans, and her rivalry with Angel Reese prompted Lakers legend Magic Johnson to compare it to his own with the great Larry Bird.
And while Clark set numerous records over her college career, one stands head and shoulders above them all. On March 3, 2024, against Ohio State, the sharp-shooting guard passed the late “Pistol” Pete Maravich to become the NCAA Division I career scoring leader. His mark of 3,667 points set in 1970 with LSU had stood for 54 years.
Clark ultimately finished her college career with 3,951 points — no currently active players are close to Clark’s mark. Over 139 games for Iowa, she averaged 28.4 points per game, also a women’s Division I record.
And she’s not nearly done. The 23-year-old was the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft, and as a rookie, she set the WNBA’s single-season assists record with 337.
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Jack Nicklaus with golf’s most major titles: 18
Golfing legend Jack Nicklaus won an astounding 18 majors between 1962 and 1986. That included six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens and three British Opens.
If that wasn’t enough, Nicklaus was a runner-up in another 19 majors, also a record, according to the PGA Tour.
When Tiger Woods came blazing onto the scene in the mid-1990s, Nicklaus’ majors record appeared to be at risk. But Woods — whose career was derailed by injuries and tumult in his personal life — sits three back from Nicklaus at 15.
While Nicklaus holds the record for most majors, Woods and Sam Snead are tied for the record for most PGA tour wins with 82. Nicklaus is in second with 73.
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The 1972 Miami Dolphins with the NFL’s only undefeated season
To say legendary head coach Don Shula and his 1972 Miami Dolphins steamrolled through the rest of the NFL is an understatement. That team, which produced eight Hall of Famers, went a stellar 14-0 in the regular season and had the league’s No. 1 ranked offense and defense.
The Dolphins then tore through their playoff competition, defeating Washington 14-7 in Super Bowl VII to cap their perfect 17-0 season.
That record was put in serious jeopardy in 2007 by Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots. Spurred by historic seasons from quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss, the Pats went 16-0 in the regular season and reached Super Bowl XLII, where they were heavily favored against the New York Giants.
But that only set the stage for one of the greatest upsets in NFL history. Late in the fourth quarter and trailing 14-10, Giants quarterback Eli Manning and wide receiver David Tyree connected on the “helmet catch,” one of the greatest plays in NFL history. The play set up a Plaxico Burress game-winning touchdown, denying the Pats their perfect season.
Every NFL season, when the last undefeated team loses, the remaining living members of the 1972 Dolphins team will pop champagne to celebrate.
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The Los Angeles Lakers with the NBA’s longest winning streak: 33 games
With a roster featuring the likes of legendary Hall of Famers Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Gail Goodrich, the Lakers ripped off 33 straight regular-season wins from Nov. 5, 1971, until Jan. 7, 1972, a record that still stands more than a half-century later.
That Lakers team finished the regular season with 69 wins — also a record which stood for over 24 years until Michael Jordan’s 1996 Chicago Bulls broke it by going 72-10 — and delivered the Lakers their first title since they had relocated from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960.
The only group to come close to breaking the 33-game winning streak was LeBron James’ Miami Heat in 2013, who won 27 straight games from Feb. 3, 2013, to March 25, 2013. That Heat team, with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, also won the NBA title that year.
A few years later, Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors won 28 straight regular season games, but divided over two seasons. They won four games to close the 2014-15 season, and then another 24 straight to open the 2015-16 season.
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Joe DiMaggio with MLB’s longest hitting streak: 56 games
Baseball is a sport defined by statistics and dominated by numbers, and few numbers are more revered than New York Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak in 1941.
Beginning on May 15, 1941, DiMaggio recorded a hit in 56 straight games, spanning over two months. Over the course of the streak he batted .408, had 15 home runs and drove in 55 runs.
On July 17, 1941, against the Cleveland Indians, shortstop Lou Boudreau fielded a groundball and recorded the out that ended DiMaggio’s streak.
In the more than 70 years since, no player has come close to DiMaggio’s record. In 1978, the late Pete Rose had a 44-game hitting streak, and in 1987, Milwaukee Brewers infielder Paul Molitor achieved a 39-game streak.
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Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record: 2,105 yards
In 1984, in just his second season in the league, Los Angeles Rams running back Eric Dickerson rumbled to an NFL regular-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, a mark that has remarkably stood for more than 40 years.
Over the course of the 16-game season, the Hall of Famer averaged 131 yards per game and had twelve 100-yard games.
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Seven running backs have since recorded 2,000-yard seasons. In 2012, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson came within nine yards of breaking Dickerson’s record, falling just short with 2,097 yards.
The NFL increased the regular season from 16 to 17 games in 2021, making it more likely Dickerson’s mark could someday fall.
This past January, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley went into the team’s final regular-season game sitting on 2,005 rushing yards and a chance to break Dickerson’s record. However, Eagles head coach Nick Siriani chose to rest Barkley in preparation for the playoffs. A move that paid off when the Eagles won the Super Bowl about five weeks later.
UConn with the longest winning streak in college basketball: 111 games
Arguably, no team has eclipsed a sport quite like UConn has eclipsed women’s college basketball this century.
From 2000 to 2016, UConn under head coach Geno Auriemma won 10 of his 11 NCAA titles with the university. And beginning in 2000, UConn played in 21 of a possible 26 Final Fours.
But it is the 111-game winning streak that began in November 2014 and was broken in March 2017 that is most staggering.
During the two-and-a-half year winning streak, UConn won four consecutive NCAA titles.
The 111-game streak, the longest in college basketball history, ended in dramatic fashion in the Final Four on March 31, 2017, when Mississippi State’s Morgan William hit a buzzer-beater in overtime to shock UConn 66-64. Mississippi State went on to lose in the championship game to South Carolina.
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And even with the loss to Mississippi State, UConn also had a 126-game regular season streak that started in November 2014 and lasted more than four years through January 2019.
UConn’s dominance under Auriemma has drawn comparisons to the UCLA men’s basketball team under John Wooden, which won 10 titles in 12 seasons between 1964 and 1975. During that era, UCLA had an 88-game winning streak of its own from 1971 to 1974.
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