Even if he doesn’t like yapping about it.

You’ve probably heard that Alexander Ovechkin, hockey’s silver-maned scoring maestro, is charging toward Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL record of 894 goals.

Ovechkin, who has played all 20 of his seasons for the Washington Capitals, is currently at 886 after scoring an empty-netter Sunday in the closing moments of Washington’s 4-2 victory over Seattle. Eighteen regular season games remain to overtake Wayne the Great One’s mark.

Nine goals in 18 games might seem like a steep order, but Ovi is Ovi, a singular force, even at 39.

I went to Sunday’s matinee to see the rugged Russian on the hunt. The Caps were playing the Kraken, a nascent Pacific Northwest franchise that wasn’t even a fever dream when a 20-year-old Ovechkin broke into North American hockey two decades ago.

Back then, Ovi was a heralded No. 1 pick, a 6-foot-3 tree trunk from Moscow with a preternatural gift for finding the net. After idling for a season-long lockout, he scored two goals in his 2005 debut. A couple of months later, he would score another flat on his back, head turned away from the net—a highlight still described as The Goal, even if Ovechkin has 885 more, and, critically, delivered Washington’s first Stanley Cup.

It’s made him a legend in D.C. The Caps tout a regional “Ovechkin Effect” in which youth hockey registration in the region has almost tripled since Ovi’s arrival. Inside the arena, there are so many Ovechkin 8s sitting next to each other, it looks like someone held down the “8” key on a laptop. Everywhere are photos of a smiling Ovi holding the Cup, those famous upper teeth with a gap wide enough to park two Zambonis.

Ovechkin hoists the Stanley Cup after the Capitals defeated the Golden Knights in the 2018 Finals. Photo: John Locher/Associated Press

Before the game, I asked Chris Patrick, Washington’s general manager, to assess Ovechkin’s chase. When Gretzky signed off in 1999 with 894 in 1,487 games played, it was as if someone had hit a seven iron to Jupiter. Nobody was going to get close.

Ovi’s close, after 1,474 games.

“We constantly talk about it,” Patrick said. “‘Who’d have ever thought we’d get to this point’?’”

It seems the only one not interested in talking about it is Ovechkin. Washington’s captain prefers to focus on his team, with reason: These Caps are good. At the moment, they’re atop the Eastern Conference, tied for the most overall points in the league.

Ovechkin is an essential contributor. This isn’t a worn-out icon skating on fumes, hanging around past expiration to punch a number. With 33 goals in 48 games, Ovechkin is Washington’s leading scorer. He’s tied for game-winning goals, with six.

He’s done this after breaking his left fibula in November. Let me repeat: Ovechkin broke his fibula in November. You can decide how long it should take a human to resume playing hockey after that. Ovechkin was back in five weeks. He’s scoring in bunches, to the point he’s amid one of his best goals-per-game rates (.69 per game) ever.

“Just a pure goal scorer,” said Patrick. “He can shoot pucks that other people can’t shoot, bad ice late in periods, tough angles…he’s just got an innate sense to put the puck in the net.”

Ovechkin celebrates with teammates after scoring an empty net goal against the Kraken. Photo: geoff burke/Reuters

Readers know I’m not exactly Stan Mikita over here, but this is how I’d describe Ovechkin on the ice: A big man who plays big. He doesn’t distract himself with finesse; his specialty is taking space in front of the net or on the left side (referred to as left winger Ovi’s “office”), finding a puck, and blasting. If the lithe Gretzky was a feathery genius, Ovechkin is blunt force.

Sunday’s game began as a slog. The Capitals played sleepy in the first period, but woke up in the second, which ended tied 2-2. The third turned rowdy with a glove-dropping brawl, which landed five Kraken and five Caps in the penalty box, none named Ovechkin. The donnybrook sparked Washington; soon, center Connor McMichael knocked home a long delivery from veteran John Carlson to give the Capitals a 3-2 edge.

When Seattle yanked its goalie late to gain a skater and try to tie the game, the arena rumbled. Ovechkin, as the Journal’s Laine Higgins recently wrote, is the all-time king of empty net goals, and with 89 seconds left, he added another, a nifty backhand which scooted under Kraken skates and found cord.

The joint went nuts. The horn blasted. A Caps mascot merrily flipped a counter from 885 to 886.

The Capitals mascot flipped Ovechkin’s goal counter to 886. Photo: Terrance Williams/Associated Press

Afterward, the Washington locker room buzzed from the win and Ovi’s dagger. “We all know obviously what’s happening…it’s incredible,” said teammate Dylan Strome. Carlson, who’s in his 16th season, likened the countdown atmosphere to “a movie.” Were the other Capitals speculating on who’d assist on Ovi’s 895th? “That’s up to him,” Carlson deadpanned. “Who he wants in the documentary.”

When a sweaty Ovechkin briefly surfaced, the conversation never wandered into record-breaking chitchat. He talked quietly about the game’s slow start, and his team’s improved energy late. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen 10 players in the penalty box before, though he recalled a mighty melee with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. He discussed his teammates, because that’s what he does, and then he left. Hockey history is falling, perhaps within weeks. Alexander Ovechkin can wait.