Another Milestone: With A Hat Trick At 40 Years Old Ovi Moved Into the Top 10 In All Time Points In NHL History

What a night for Ovi, man. We just have to take a second on this here website to appreciate him once again because this very well could be his last NHL season and I will regret not typing more words about him while he played. Last night Ovi broke the NHL scoring record 3 more times, recording a hat trick in Montreal, at the age of 40. For anyone who thought he was washed you must have forgotten he uses the first 6 weeks of the season to get back in shape and sweat out the vodka, and now that we're at Thanksgiving, it's a bad, baddddd time to be an NHL netminder. 

It's simply ridiculous what he's able to do. It's already easy to forget that while breaking Gretzky's record last season he had 44 goals in 65 games, because if you recall he broke his damn leg halfway through the season. Now after a bit of a slow start he has 10 goals in 21 games, including goals in 4 straight. The man is defrosting, heating up, and on the road to another 40 goal season. 

The question we will start hearing now is, "Could he stick around another 2 years and hit 1,000?". The answer is obviously an easy "yes". But replace that "could" with "will" and the answer becomes a lottttt stickier. I don't think he plays after this season, to be quite frank with you. He's done it all, and while he loves the game as much as ever, it just feels like a natural stopping point. It would be bananas for him to score another 40 this year and then hang up the yellow laces, but Ovi has never been the most conventional guy anyway. 

I wish there was some normalcy in sports for guys to play half-seasons or something. I don't see why he can't play only home games for the next 5 years. Why isn't that more of a thing? Would Ovi playing 41 games at home break some sort of CBA clause? I would love to know if that can or can't happen.

But regardless, I hope everyone is watching every second of his career. Another hat trick last night, another milestone, but another game closer to retirement. Ain't that just the balance of life if I've ever seen it. Man.

PS: For people who say he only scores on empty nets or whatever: