On Sunday, history was made, as Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record for most NHL goals. The goal, the 895th of Ovechkin’s career came against New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin, who up until Sunday, had the honour that few goaltenders have: he’d yet to give up a goal against Ovechkin.

The game was then paused for a lengthy celebration, where Ovechkin’s family, Gretzky himself, and others came out onto the ice to celebrate the incredible achievement. During that time, players from around the league, past and present, sent their congratulations to Ovechkin via the Islanders’ video board.

It got us thinking: What role have the Canucks played in Ovechkin’s 895 career NHL goals?

It all began on October 27th, 2006. After Jan Bulis and Taylor Pyatt scored to give the Canucks a two-goal cushion, Ovechkin assisted on a Dainius Zubrus power play goal before Ovechkin scored his sixth goal of the season to tie the game up at two. The Canucks went on to win that game in a shootout. That was Ovechkin’s first game, first goal, and first multi-point effort against the Canucks since the Capitals and Canucks didn’t face off in Ovechkin’s rookie year.

In total, Ovechkin has 16 goals in 28 career games against the Canucks. This includes five game winning goals, four 2-goal efforts, and eight single-goal efforts.

Ovechkin last scored against the Canucks on March 16th, 2024, when the Capitals beat the Canucks 2-1. Overall, the Capitals have a record of 15-10-3 versus the Canucks with Ovechkin in the lineup.

Here are the goalies who Ovechkin managed to torch for those two-goal games we mentioned above: Anders Nilsson, Spencer Martin, Roberto Luongo, and Thatcher Demko. Luongo was in net when Ovechkin scored his first goal against the Canucks in 2006.

Luongo and Demko have both allowed four goals each while wearing Canucks colours, while Eddie Lack, Ryan Miller, and Jacob Markstrom have the proud honour of being able to say they only gave up one goal to Ovechkin during their time as Canucks netminders.

If you’re asking which Canucks goalies haven’t given up a goal against Ovechkin, the answer is Kevin Lankinen, and Kevin Lankinen only. He has faced the Capitals three times in his career, twice as a Canuck this season, and Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet in all of those games.

Now, Roberto Luongo is far and away the leader in “Canucks Goaltender in Games Where Ovechkin Didn’t Score” (CGGWODS for short), but that’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

This one didn’t come with as much fanfare for obvious reasons, so we’ll forgive you if you don’t remember; but on November 29th, 2022, Ovechkin tied and broke Gretzky’s all-time road goals record at Rogers Arena. Ovechkin did it by scoring the game’s first two goals in what went down as a 5-1 Capitals win.