How Alex Ovechkin's 1st NHL goal set the stage for record-breaking career

The puck left Dainius Zubrus' stick along the boards and found Alex Ovechkin in the slot.

Ovechkin unleashed the one timer that would become his calling card over his NHL career, beating Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Pascal Leclaire.

Nearly 20 years have passed since Ovechkin shot that puck to score his first career NHL goal, one of two he recorded in his debut game on Oct. 5, 2005. 

It was the first of 897 career goals and counting for #8, who would go on to break a goal-scoring record held by Wayne Gretzky that most people thought could and would never be surpassed.

It was also a turning point for hockey in the D.C. area. Ovechkin would lead the Capitals to a Stanley Cup in 2018, but he also reignited interest in the team and sport of hockey.

Inside Washington's crease at the other end of the ice that day in 2005, Olaf Kölzig could feel the shift as soon as the puck went into the Blue Jackets' net.

He'd been with the Capitals through a few seasons of poor performance and dismal crowds. When Ovechkin scored, the thing he loves to do more than anything else, everything changed. The building went crazy.

"To see the way he electrified that building that night and now he's electrified the whole city, he's electrified the National Hockey League, there's just something about him," Kölzig, who now works in player development with the Capitals, told CBC Sports.

"He's just a once in a lifetime superstar and has just a way of bringing everybody on board for the ride."

As a season-long lockout ended ahead of the 2005-06 season, everyone was talking about two incoming rookies: Ovechkin and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. Both still teenagers, they were lifelines for struggling franchises.

A couple weeks into training camp that year,