Alex Ovechkin set an NHL record on Saturday, scoring his 57th empty net goal to pass Wayne Gretzky for most all-time.
Oftentimes, empty-netters are great way to pad stats, especially now that teams are pulling their netminders with multiple goal deficits, and earlier in the period. This is in contrast to the pull the goalie with a minute left to play in a one-goal game strategy that lasted for decades.
Ovechkin’s empty net goal total, however, is about 6.8 percent of his goals (up from 5 percent from a few years ago), so he’d still be third all time in goals if he never scored on an empty net (and Gretzky’s goal total would be 840).