He doesn't rely on youth/athleticism to score goals and can sit in his spot on the PP and put up 15-20 PP goals every year just on that, let alone the ES goals and empty netters. If he was open to playing until 45 or 46, which several other guys have done, he would easily get 1000 (that's ~25 goals per year).
More importantly, he also hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, with a 50 goal pace this season despite the Caps' lineup having a ton of injuries, him being banged up and his father passing. Why would anyone expect him to hit a sudden massive wall? Let's say he does start to slow down a bit though, 45 next year, 40 the year after, then 35, then 30, then 25 (age 42 season). I don't think he'd slow down that much but if he did boom he's at 1000 right there after his age 42 season.
FWIW, I do not think he will play in NA long enough to hit 1000, I think he goes back and plays a few years in Russia before retiring. He has stated he wants to do that after breaking Gretzky's record. BUT if he does want to stay here and has a goal of hitting 1000, it's really not that far fetched to think it's extremely realistic for him.
edit: also, to your last sentence I bolded. Everything about Ovi's career up to this point is INSANE. Why can't you believe that the insanity will continue? He's the GOAT goal scorer. I would never doubt him.
