Yes it very early for a topic like this but it is also exciting that there is even the potential on the ice for it to happen. Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin both not only have the ability, but are also very much on pace in the early games of the season so far!
Ilya Kovalchuk has 7 goals in five games played and Alexander Ovechkin has 9 goals in eight games played so far!
Here is an article written about Ovechkin from NHL.com:
Maybe it’s time to get serious. Not since Brett Hull did it nearly 20 years ago has a player scored 50 goals in his team’s first 50 games, but Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is in the hunt, having notched 7 goals in seven games this season.
Ovechkin scored 2 goals on 13 shots in a 4-1 victory against San Jose Thursday after being held without a goal the previous three games. His pair against the Sharks, coming 28 seconds apart in the second period, was the fastest back-to-back goals of his career, and now No. 8 has scored a goal against every team in the League. The Caps, in fact, are 24-0-2 in Ovechkin’s last 26 multiple-goal games.
After leading the League with 528 shots in 2008-09, Ovechkin is atop the charts once again, with 55 shots this season.
Hull connected for 50 goals in his team’s 49th game as a member of the St. Louis Blues in 1990-91 to become only the fifth player in NHL history to hit the 50 in 50 mark — an achievement matched only by Wayne Gretzky, Maurice Richard, Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux.
And what about the possibility of hitting the 70-goal mark? That’s been done 14 times by eight different players in League history, but no one has touched that number since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny did it in 1992-93, finishing in a tie for the League lead with 76 goals.
Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau would prefer to temper the talk of 50 in 50 or 70 goals in a season.
“It’s not a realistic goal,” Boudreau told the media. “It’s too much pressure to put on someone who just goes out there and plays — the goals will come. Maybe you can talk about something else to shoot for, like maybe having a plus-50 rating. The fact of the matter is people just don’t get tired of hearing about just how special a player Alex is.”
For the record, Ovechkin is a plus-9 this season. One former player predicted Ovechkin would knock in 70 this season.
“This coming season Ovechkin is going to get probably 70 goals,” Jaromir Jagr told Russian journalist Pavel Lysenkov of SovSport last month. “How can you keep up with that? I just wonder where this guy gets all his energy. It can’t all be from training. You have to be born with it. They broke his nose, and Ovechkin out of rage hammers in 4 goals against Montreal. How do you repeat that? He is a one of a kind.”
