Matthews has 398 goals in 623 career games, 497 shy of Ovechkin’s mark. At his current goals-per-game pace, he would need 778 more games to reach 896 goals, one more than Ovechkin’s record. Based on an 82-game season, that translates to about nine-and-a-half more seasons.

Ovechkin netted his 325th career power play goal to break the record, and he went sliding across the ice in celebration. During the on-ice ceremony that followed, Gretzky came down from his seat in UBS Arena to address the crowd and congratulate Ovechkin.

Wayne Gretzky's NHL record of 894 goals was once considered unbreakable. Then Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin broke it Sunday. "They say records are meant to be broken, but I'm not sure who's going to get more goals than that,