The Washington Capitals took care of business on Saturday afternoon in the nation’s capital city, defeating the New York Rangers by a 7-4 final score. And doing the game, the ageless Alex Ovechkin continued his pursuit of history.

During the third period, he beat Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick with a nifty backhand shot, giving him his 872nd career goal.

Ovechkin is now just 23 goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark of 894 career goals, a record that is on pace to be broken given Ovechkin’s pace this season.

An even more incredible aspect of what Ovechkin is accomplishing was posted by the NHL’s official Public Relations X account – he’s scoring at an even higher pace at age 39 than he did during the prime of his career.

Ovechkin also missed several weeks after suffering a broken fibula, but he’s back and better than ever.

The Capitals remain in awe of what Alex Ovechkin is accomplishing

Capitals forward Dylan Strome explained his point of view watching Ovechkin’s tally, which was Washington’s fifth goal of the game via The Washington Post.

“Just feels like he gets on these runs,” Strome said. “Not sure how that happens on that fifth goal. Just goes through their [defenseman’s] legs and Quick misses with his stick and then he just puts it in. He’s in the right areas. We had some good chances earlier in the game and got rewarded in the third.”

Meanwhile, Capitals coach Spencer Carbery described the game as “squirrelly”.

“The third period is really squirrelly,” Carbery said. “A bunch of weird plays that start to happen. … There’s just a lot of different twists and turns in that game that were odd.”

The Capitals are next in action on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST.