Canucks Fans Prepare To Watch Alex Ovechkin’s Potential Last Game At Rogers Arena

With 34 regular season games left to play this year, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is only 20 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky’s record for the NHL record in all-time goals scored. As he inches closer and closer to the record, it’s becoming more possible that this could be his final season in the NHL — and his final playing in front of Vancouver Canucks fans.

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Ovechkin scored career goal no. 875 on Thursday night against the Seattle Kraken in a 3–0 victory for his team. It was his 22nd goal of the season in 32 games. The prolific goal scorer has hit the 50-goal mark nine times in his career, which is the same amount of times that he has won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for the most goals scored in one season. He played his first game against Vancouver on October 27, 2006, putting up a goal and an assist in his first trip to Rogers Arena. Since then, Ovechkin has scored 16 goals against the Canucks and looks to make it more tonight.

In 13 games played at Rogers Arena, Ovechkin has put up a multi-goal effort three times — in 2011, 2018, and 2022. He has hit the back of the net in six of these 13 games, putting up nine goals in Vancouver.

While Vancouver has been kind to Ovechkin NHL-wise, it’s also home to one of his particularly painful defeats. In the 2010 Vancouver-hosted Winter Olympics, Ovechkin and Russia were handed a 7–3 loss by Team Canada, who went on to win Gold thanks to Ovechkin’s longtime rival Sidney Crosby. With a roster stacked with the likes of Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk, Russia was unable to gel together and ultimately disappointed fans in their performances in Vancouver. It was during this particular Olympic campaign that Ovechkin was noted to have “clammed up,” only answering questions from the media a select few times.

While it’s possible that Ovechkin could call it a career after breaking Gretzky’s all-time goals record, which could come as soon as this season, there’s also a possibility that fans could see him play even after his contract expires. He told R-Sport in August 2024 that, if permitted by the NHL and the IIHF, he and other Russian athletes “want to play in the Olympics,” the next of which will be held in Italy in 2026.

Regardless of whether Ovechkin breaks Gretzky’s goal record or not this season, his career at Rogers Arena has definitely been entertaining to watch.

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