Carbery: Ovechkin handling record chase with 'class'

Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery tipped his cap to Alex Ovechkin for the way he's embraced the pressure of chasing down Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record.

"You can tell certain moments of what's going on, but very rare, very rare," Carbery told NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. "When you're in the game, and he probably would say, 'It's no different for me,' but I can feel it, and it's probably just a product of our guys and the excitement even for myself internally when he gets into scoring situations.

"But man, he's such a pro when he comes to this stuff, and he's been down this road chasing different records, pressure, all this stuff. So, he handles it with such class and deflects it all and makes it more about what we're doing as a team."

Ovechkin recorded his 887th career goal in his latest outing, putting him eight away from surpassing Gretzky. The 39-year-old has 34 markers on the season, including 19 in 33 games since returning from a broken tibia in December.

The future first-ballot Hall of Famer prefers to talk about the Capitals' hunt for the Eastern Conference's top seed over his personal success.

"You're just focusing on different things," Ovechkin said. "Tomorrow it's a new day. We're going to play against a good team fighting for the playoffs, so we concentrate on that."

The Capitals lead the East with 96 points after squeaking into the postseason last year as the second wild-card seed. The club has 15 games remaining and returns to action Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.