500 for Ovi!

Just like his slapshot, or just when he shots a puck towards the goal, which is super fast. Alex Ovechkin became the fifth fastest player in their careers to reach the 500 goal milestone. Ovechkin is behind Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux to name a few. Also Alex Ovechkin is the first Russian born player to join the 500 Goal Club.

To make things even more amazing about this event in his career, he managed to score his 500th goal at home. He also managed to score his 501st in the same game. Leading up to scoring his 500th goal, Ovechkin was on a scoring streak, before the game against the Ottawa Senators where he scored his milestone goal, he was on fire against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden. With Ovechkin scoring the first goal (498th career goal) for the Washington Capitals and scoring the last overtime goal, which then would be his 499th career goal. Want to see the videos? This one and here is another one. He's one of those amazing hockey players to watch. He has amazing talent, so it's worth your time to check these two goals out. I told you his shot was fast, once he has an eye on an opening to score a goal, you won't be able to see the puck. You know it went in due to the red light going off with the buzzer.

It was very cool to see him score his 500th and 501st goal in person. I was not there, I was watching it on TV. It's quite an honor to tell my future kids about this one day, saying I saw one of the greatest hockey players of all time in the NHL score one of his milestone goals. It is always fun to see if he can hit thirty goals during a season, which he has done for all his seasons (11 seasons of playing in the NHL). I think you want to see it too, so here is Alex Ovechkin's 500th goal and his 501st goal. He did not stop scoring from there, he is now working his way to 600th goal and more. At the rate he is going you could possibly see the first NHL player to score a thousand goals? Who knows maybe this Russian kid can beat off the all time leading scorer of the NHL off his place, Wayne Gretzky with 894 goals. Wayne why did you stop? No seriously, the Great One, why?! The only reason now I am bring up Gretzky is that there are now debates about who is better: Ovechkin or Gretzky? That one is hard to tell, I figure that time will tell on it's own.

 

Celebrating the 500th goals with the Washington Capitals fans

and also with his teammates André Burakovsky (65) and

Jason Chimera (25)

Also the NHL made a little video honoring and welcoming Alex Ovechkin into the 500 Goal Club. They also did an ceramony welcoming him into it as well, the video is below.

Just like what Teemu Selänne said, Ovi I cannot wait for your 800th goal. Bring it on home, and give us more to watch. You're a great athlete, and what you teammates have been saying about you in news articles and interviews you're one hell of a teammate and one hell of a guy!

2015-16 Mid Season Review: Minnesota Wild Fall/Winter 2015

 It's a team effort to keep the puck out of the net.

Mikael Granlund (64), Jared Spurgen (46), and Ryan Suter (20)

are helping goalie Devan Dubynk (40) out.

The Wild have high hopes coming into this season. Hungry for a chance to grab their first Stanley Cup. The playoffs last year showed that the Wild have some drive, to make it happen. Nothing like those last four minutes of their 2014-15 season to show that they wanted to stay alive in their playoff run against the Chicago Blackhawks. The pre-season showed that still have that competitive drive in them, they won the majority of their pre-season games (4-2-0).

The Wild have been pretty hot during this first part of the season mainly the 2015 bit. During the first part the Wild are 20-10-6. In the first month during the NHL season in October the Minnesota Wild found themselves undefeated at home (5-0-0).

Mikko Koivu (November 21, 2015) and Zach Parise (October 27, 2015) reached their 700th game milestone. The 700 games that Parise played are both combined with his days as a New Jersey Devil and also with the Minnesota Wild. Koivu played all of his 700 games with the Minnesota Wild since his first season in 2005-06, this is also his tenth year on the Wild. Both of Koivu's and Parise's games where home games and both ended as victories.

Daven Dubynk and Darcy Kuemper recorded the first goalie tagged team shutout in the NHL during the December 5th game. Not sure if this is true out not, I heard some commentators talking about it. Please correct me if I am wrong. I googled the heck out of it. This is also led to Kuemper's first win since January 2015.

Dubynk also found himself in a middle of a baby watch during this past December, his wife was expecting Baby Dubynk: "Earlier Saturday, Dubynk voiced concern he could miss the upcoming road game at Colorado because of the most publicized childbirth in Wild history. His wife, Jennifer, is due with the couple’s second child any moment now. 'My wife has been mentioned on the highlights more than I have lately,' Dubnyk joked," is what Michael Russo wrote about #babywatch in an article in the Star Tribune.  During this baby watch, Dubynk stayed at home which lead them to take Kuemper (as a starter in goal) and taking Niklas Backstrom as backup goaltender, this was his first time dressing for a game since pre-season in September.

It has been an interesting start to the season. I would love to see the Wild keep up their momentum and charging ahead to their way to their first Stanley Cup. I believe they can win one. They have showed in the 2015 part of the season they have drive to go where they want to go and be on top of the league. It is amazing to see that there has been no really horrible goalie injuries or issues that have came across the team in this first half of the season. Devan Dubynk has been pretty strong in the net for the Wild all season long, which is great. Because it is what they need a strong goaltender in their net, and also a strong defensive and offensive in front of him, which they have. So from this point on, I have a feeling their good to go, even though they find them selves in a little losing rut right now, I believe they can get out of it. They are a strong team, they know where they want to go and know they have to work hard to get there.