At a time when the game's deep thinkers and even the shallow thinkers ponder how to get more pucks into more nets, it is nice for a change to pause and celebrate the most gifted goal scorer of our generation.

From the moment the puck dropped Sunday night at the sold-out Verizon Center, there was a crackle of anticipation. The players felt it too -- even if Alex Ovechkin suggested he did not -- that this would be the night, that it was just a matter of time before Ovechkin scored the 500th goal of his career.

As it turned out it was just that -- a matter of time -- as Ovechkin followed a blueprint that has served him so well since coming into the league in 2005-06: biding his time on a power play before ripping a Jason Chimera pass over Ottawa Senators goaltender Andrew Hammond with 3:41 left in the second period of Sunday's 7-1 thumping.

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