Alex Ovechkin ties one of Wayne Gretzky's records.

The legend of Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin grew just a little bit larger on Saturday night.

Ovechkin did what many once thought would be impossible on Saturday night when he and his Capitals took on the New York Islanders. Not only did Ovechkin manage to notch what was just his third goal of the regular season during the course of the game, but he would add another in the late stages of the game that would put him in truly elite company.

Ovechkin would record an empty net goal towards the end of the game and that empty netter would give him a total of 56 empty net goals in his National Hockey League career. Not only is that an impressive figure, but it is one that only one other player in the history of the NHL has managed to reach.

56 empty net goals is good enough to tie Wayne Gretzky himself for the all-time NHL record, which now means that with his next empty net goal Ovechkin will actually surpass The Great One in the NHL record books. Whether or not that will come to pass however remains to be seen.

While an empty net goal total isn't going to be the most talked about NHL record, the fact that Ovechkin was able to reach any of Wayne Gretzky's seemingly untouchable records speaks to what a truly great hockey player he has been throughout his lengthy NHL career.