Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is eight goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL Goal record with odds increasing for it to happen versus the New York Islanders
The biggest storyline of the NHL season has by far been the GR8 Chase with Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin on the precipice of passing hockey legend Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goals record. There is nine games left in the Capitals season and Ovechkin is within five goals from breaking the record after scoring versus the Sabres this past Sunday.
The Russian winger has 37 goals on the season now, and betting odds for the record to be broken this season have dropped drastically to -170 and means if you haven't taken it already like we suggest, you may have missed your last opportunity to take the bet at a bargain but we have several other betting options that you still can take.
All betting lines are from FanDuel Sportsbook and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly.
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In our last post about the GR8 Chase, we said to take the odds while you could at -136 and like we predicted the odds continued to drop due to Ovechkin continuing to score as the Capitals were heading into several favourable matchups. Washington is still dominating with the league's best offence and seventh-best defence plus they have the third-easiest remaining strength of schedule, according to Tankathon.
The case is starting to look more and more likely as they will play against bottom eight defences in the Blackhawks, Penguins and Bruins as well as two bouts with the Blue Jackets. They will also face off twice against the Hurricanes, who is one of the top teams in the East but Ovechkin has his second-most career goals against. We don't see a ton of value in betting the record to be broken now but we can take a guess as to who it'll be against.
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The Capitals will have a back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday with games versus the Bruins and Hurricanes, which should give us the ability to pencil in a goal or two there. We will need just four more goals after that and Washington will return home on Friday to take on the league's worst defence in the Blackhawks. A home matchup versus a Chicago team that has allowed 83 goals over their last 20 games should spell for at least a goal for Ovi there.
That takes us into next week with three goals to go and after a Sunday matchup versus the Islanders, Washington will get a four-day break not playing again until Thursday versus the Hurricanes again. This game could be the most crucial as a much-needed goal here would leave him with two left and four games left to do it.
A pair of matchups versus the Blue Jackets should provide at least one goal there and will leave us with one goal to go with two matchups left versus the ...
