It’s incredibly unlikely Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin will break one of sports’ most hallowed records in St. Paul, and the Wild would love to put his chase of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring mark on hold for a night.

Ovechkin arrives to face the Wild on Thursday night five goals from tying and six goals from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 career goals.

RELATED: NHL.com’s “The Gr8 Chase”

Ovechkin has scored 20 goals in the 24 games he’s played against the Wild including a hat trick in St. Paul in March 2017.

Click the video box above to watch KSTP Sports’ interviews with Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno and Jonas Brodin about Alexander Ovechkin’s record chase and the Wild’s outlook with ten games left in the regular season – and click the video box below (or swipe the frame on mobile) to see John Hynes update Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek’s injury status

The Wild would benefit from containing Ovechkin and his NHL-leading Capitals to protect their own playoff position.

With ten games to go in the regular season the Wild are in the Western Conference’s first wildcard spot, but their lead for the final playoff position has shrunk to just five points:

There is hope help is on the way.

Marcus Foligno returns tonight after missing the last five games.

In addition, John Hynes said Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek had an on-ice session before the team’s practice as they work their way back to the active roster.

Hynes cautioned, “It’s only the first step. It’s still week to week – not anything different – but they are on that next protocol of getting on the ice, doing some skating, touching some pucks. The status of their return, it’s nothing imminent.”

Hynes said the two players have been on the ice for rehab skating sessions, but Thursday’s workout was their first with sticks and pucks.

He added the two will join the team for next week’s three-game roadtrip to New York, but won’t play.

Kaprizov missed a month from December 23rd to January 23rd, returned to play three games, but then has been out since January 26th – a stretch of 23 games – after having surgery on the lower-body issue.

Eriksson Ek has missed the last 15 games after playing once after returning from the 4 Nations competition. He has missed a total of 30 games this season.