[28-DEC-2016] #NickyWatch and other milestones...

Nicklas Bäckström is three assists shy of hitting the 500-career-assist milestone.

Alex Ovechkin is eight points shy of hitting the 1000-career-point milestone.

While it might be fitting for them to hit their big milestone together, I'd like to see Bäckström hit his sooner than that... unless Ovi has a really big game! 

Karl Alzner has played in 491 consecutive regular season games, nine games shy of joining the 500 club. If he plays in all 82 games this season, his streak will hit 540 games, and he will join a group of 23 other players who have played in 500 or more consecutive games. The consecutive games record is held by Doug Jarvis, who played in 964 consecutive games from the start of his career, and is one of only four in that elite club of players to break the 500 mark to do so in that fashion. (Alzner's career began with a back-and-forth to Hershey, so he will not be in that group, but if he remains healthy, he will join the 500 club this season.

Let's go, Caps!!!

[28-DEC-2016] #TrotzWatch

#01...Scotty Bowman...............1244 W...2141 GC
#02...Joel Quenneville.............823 W...1494 GC
#03...Al Arbour....................782 W...1607 GC
#04...Ken Hitchcock................775 W...1439 GC
#05...Lindy Ruff...................717 W...1447 GC
#06...Dick Irvin...................692 W...1449 GC
#07...Pat Qunnn....................684 W...1400 GC
#08...Barry Trotz..................678 W...1393 GC
#09...Mike Keenan..................672 W...1386 GC

Head Coach Barry Trotz has won 678 games of the 1393 games he coached, putting him firmly in the #8 slot all-time. With another seven wins, he will top Pat Quinn.

Pat Quinn coached several seasons in the NHL, for:

• Philadelphia (1978-1982)
• Los Angeles (1984-1987) 
• Vancouver (1990-1996)
• Toronto (1998-2005)
• Edmonton (2009-2010)

He passed away November 23, 2014 after a long illness, having been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on the 17th of that month. Quinn coached two teams - the 1979-80 Flyers and the 1993-94 Canucks - to the Stanley Cup finals; neither team won the coveted trophy. He coached Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City; in 2004, his Team Canada won the World Cup of Hockey with a record of 6-0. As a player for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Quinn leveled Bobby Orr in the 1969 playoffs against the Boston Bruins, starting a bench-clearing brawl. A left-shot defenseman, he played in 606 career games, scored 18 goals, and 113 assists, and spent 950 minutes in the penalty box.

[28-DEC-2016] #OviWatch

#20.....Mark Recchi..........577 G..........1652 GP

#21.....Mike Bossy...........573 G...........752 GP

#22.....Mats Sundin..........564 G..........1346 GP

#23.....Joe Nieuwendyk.......564 G..........1257 GP

#24.....Mike Modano..........561 G..........1499 GP

#25.....Guy Lafleur..........560 G..........1126 GP

#26.....John Bucyk...........556 G..........1540 GP

#27.....Ron Francis..........549 G..........1731 GP

#28.....Michel Goulet........548 G..........1089 GP

#29.....Maurice Richard......544 G...........978 GP

#30.....Alex Ovechkin........541 G...........872 GP

#31.....Stan Mikita..........541 G..........1394 GP

#32.....Keith Tkachuk........538 G..........1201 GP

Ovi's 16th goal of the season came last night in a 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders, but it propels the Great 8 into 30th place all-time (tied with Stan Mikita). The holidays prevented me from updating in the last month or so, but here we go.

Stan Mikita was considered the best centerman of the 1960s when he played for the Chicago Black Hawks. Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, Mikita's NHL career began in the 1958-59 season when he played 3 games for the Black Hawks. His career would span until the 1979-80 season, when he played in 17 games and scored 2 goals, to bring his total to 541 goals in 1394 games played. 

Mikita played in nine NHL All-Star games; he won the Hart Memorial Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, and Lady Byng Trophy twice, in 1966-67 and again in 1967-68, becoming the only NHL player to do so. In his career, Mikita played in 155 playoff games, scoring 59 goals and 91 assists, missing the playoffs only four times in his career - 1958-59, 1968-69, 1978-79, and 1979-80. Interestingly, his misses came a decade apart until the last. 

Mikita retired during the 1979-80 season due to chronic back problems. In January 2015, the Chicago Tribune released a statement indicating Mikita was suffering from suspected Demetia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and in June of that year, it was revealed that he had no memory of his life as a hockey player, and was being cared for by his wife. DLB is a progressive disease, and has no cure; it has not been linked with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, but may have genetic ties to the PARK11 gene, which is also associated with Parkinson's disease (which DLB is often misdiagnosed as, in early stages).