Over the course of his 21-year NHL career, the Caps have often had the occasion to celebrate the achievements of their longstanding captain and the NHL’s all-time goal scoring leader, Alex Ovechkin. Across the years of his career, the team has feted him several times for various feats and milestones, beginning with his rookie season when he won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.
Ovechkin reaches a milestone or surpasses one of the game’s all-time greats, and a week or two later, the Caps hold a ceremony at center ice to laud their captain, who beams proudly while his family and teammates look on.
Wednesday night’s pregame ceremony prior to the Caps’ contest with the Winnipeg Jets is the latest of these pregame accolades, and this one is a big one, because it honors two different achievements, including one that no other player has ever been celebrated for achieving previously, because no player ever achieved it previously.
On Nov. 5 in Washington – 20 years and one month to the day after scoring his first NHL goal – Ovechkin beat St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington with a backhand shot, and when the red light went on, it marked the 900th time Ovechkin has scored in an NHL game.
After netting goal No. 899 on Oct. 24 in Columbus, Ovechkin had local fans in a tizzy, because the Caps were coming home to host Ottawa the following night, and Ovechkin would be skating in his 1,500th NHL game on that Saturday evening. The fans’ fervent hope was to witness a twin milestone night, to have Ovechkin net No. 900 on the same night he broke the 1,500-game barrier.
Alas, the hockey gods did not acquiesce, and it was nearly two weeks before the goal counter clicked over from 899 to 900.
The list of players who have suited up for as many as 1,500 NHL games is longer than the 900-goal list; including Ovechkin, two dozen players have climbed that high on the games played ladder since the NHL opened for operation in 1917. But the list of players who have played as many as 1,500 games with the same franchise grew to just eight when Ovechkin took the ice against Ottawa on Oct. 25.
Honoring The Great Eight is tough because by the time the ceremony rolls around, he’s piled up more accomplishments. That’s true in this case as well.
In NHL history, Ovechkin is the all-time leader in goals, power-play goals (327), game-winning goals (139), overtime goals (27), road goals (162), game-opening goals (151), game-tying goals (151), go-ahead goals (293) and empty-net goals (67) – to name just a few – and he has added to many of those totals since notching No. 900 here three weeks ago.
These days, every time Ovechkin scores, he is automatically breaking at least one record, and typically a few of them. Last Thursday in Montreal, he notched his 33rd career hat trick in an 8-4 win over the Canadiens.
In doing so, Ovechkin also: 1) recorded his 1,642nd career point to pass Joe Sakic (1,641) and move into the NHL’s all-time top 10 in scoring, 2) tied the longest goal streak (four games) by a player aged 40 or older in NHL history, 3) became the sixth player aged 40 or older to record a hat trick, 4) became the second player in NHL history to score six goals in a four-game span.
If you’re going to honor Ovechkin, you’ve got to be quick. If not, he’ll pile up more achievements.
Quickness has always been part of the Alex Ovechkin brand. Quick feet, hands, instincts and a quick release have empowered him to score 900 goals in the NHL, and his quickness and elusiveness have enabled him to skirt would-be checkers and evade long-term injury over most of his career, allowing him to play 1,500 games in the League.
It’s his quickness off the ice that has helped make him such an appealing superstar, an enduring icon of a player, and one of the rare ones in any sport to ply his trade in the same city for over two decades.
Ovechkin is always quick with a smile, a laugh, one of his trademark toothless grins. He’s quick to attach himself to charitable causes, quick to celebrate teammates’ achievements, quick to welcome new teammates to the fold; he’s even quick to end virtually every media scrum he has ever endured.
Back on June 26, 2004, the day Ovechkin entered the Capitals organization on his draft day in Raleigh, the team hosted a draft party to celebrate its good fortune in being able to select Ovechkin with the first overall pick, and to fete the 13-player draft class the Caps brought home from that draft, back when it was a nine-round affair.
“I think he was our guy the whole way through,” remembers Caps president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan in an oral history of Ovechkin’s early days in DC. “Our guys liked everything about his game, and they really liked his personality and the energy he brought. I remember him coming into our meeting room, going around and shaking everybody’s hand. He didn’t really have a great grasp of the language, but he was just all in. He came around, shook everybody’s hand, and he engaged the way he engages.
“There was no doubt that he was going to turn out, and that he was the guy that everybody wanted to pick. He just took over rooms with his energy. He lives life at a high energy level, and I think that attracts the scouts; it attracts everybody. It attracts the fans, attracts ownership, and it’s worked out.”
To say the least.
On that day at that party, Ovechkin was quick to devour cantaloupe. Just couldn’t get enough. A little over a year later when he arrived in Washington for good, he was quick to adapt to North America both on and off the ice, which made all the difference to his new teammates.
As the years wore on, those early experiences almost certainly also helped mold Ovechkin into the captain he became and has been for 17 seasons now. His early teammates talk of him with the same reverence as his current ones.
“Personally with Ovi, I clicked with him right away,” says former Caps defenseman Steve Eminger. “And most of the guys who were within my circle clicked with him right away, too. Most younger European guys coming over here for the first time tend to kind of keep to themselves or stick with their countrymen, which is normal. But Ovi was different. He wanted to learn English, he wanted to speak English, he wanted to be one of the guys and to go out with the guys, and he always brought that attitude to the rink, that laughing and happy attitude that everyone sees. He was different in that way from the get go, wanting to be North American right off the bat.”
Twenty years ago is such a long time in NHL years; most players still had roommates on the road then. Caps had planned on having Ovechkin room with Dainius Zubrus, but Ovechkin insisted on having a North American roommate.
“He wanted to room with a North American guy, so he ended up rooming with Brian Willsie,” says ex-Caps goalie Olie Kolzig. “He really embraced the team and really involved himself. He wasn’t standoffish, he didn’t do things on his own, he wanted to be enveloped by the team and be part of the team right away. And I think everybody – to a man – just embraced him because of his outgoing nature and just wanting to get involved right away, which isn’t typical for a Russian or an ex-Eastern bloc country player to be that way. They tend to be a little bit standoffish, and maybe not as trusting right away. But that wasn’t the case with Ovi. He bought in right away.”
“It was his attitude to want to learn,” says Zubrus. “I mean, he knew some English. I want to say maybe his parents wanted him to learn somehow, but his English was somewhat okay to get by a little bit. But like I said, he was a different breed. When he came in, he wanted to understand the jokes in the locker room, he wanted to incorporate better in the room and feel better as a person in the whole system of hockey life. He said himself, ‘I want to room with a North American guy and I want to speak more English and be forced to do that.’
“Some guys, listen, the team says, ‘Here is the teacher, here are the lessons,’ and the team pays for it, and the guys don’t even bother to show up. This guy was the exact opposite. He said, ‘Zubie, I don’t want to room with you.’ In his second season we roomed together, traveling. But in the beginning, he said, ‘No, I want to live with a North American guy because I want to learn English better.’”
Willsie was more than a willing roommate.
“One thing that was pretty cool was, we would get to cities, and he was such a curious – almost like a boy to me,” Willsie recalls. “And I wasn’t that much older. He was so excited about every place we went, and he asked questions about the city and the building, and what the crowd was going to be like, and ‘Are we walking there, or are we taking the bus?’ Or like, ‘Are we going to Starbucks before?’ It was just all these questions, and it really brought the love back for me. I mean, I loved playing and I loved everything about it, but it was really cool to be a part of that.”
Even as a rookie and a young player in the League, Ovechkin was mature enough to know he needed to be who he was, but he also needed to embrace the local culture and the team culture.
“I knew I wanted to stay here long enough to play well,” says Ovechkin. “Obviously, back then I didn’t know if I was going to be good, or if I was going to be healthy, or if I was going to sign that contract. But I wanted to learn for the future, right? Because you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. So I was all in for language, I was all in for showing who I am as a person, and I think the guys and all the organization appreciated it. I was all the time honest; if I didn’t like something, I’m going to tell it to the coach or to the team. But it was hard for me to take that step to be who I am right now.
“But as soon as you came to the League, as soon as you came to a different country, it was hard. I was talking to one guy, and he wasn’t playing. And he said, ‘Well, maybe I’m going to [play in] Europe, but it’s going to be so hard for me. What am I going to do there? It’s going to be a different world.’ Can you imagine when we have parents, we have friends, we have everything in Russia? It’s basically the same way. It’s hard for everybody to change their world or change their life, to come to a different country and stay here.”
A quick study, Ovechkin did all of that, and he thrived on the ice all the while, which is likely no coincidence. Those early career experiences were building blocks, and they prepared him for his inevitable ascendance to the team captaincy on Jan. 5, 2010. Now in his 17th season with the “C” on his sweater, his tenure in Washington occupies forty percent of the franchise’s history, and his captaincy stretches for a third of it.
Ovechkin’s larger than life magnetism, his charisma and his endless effervescence have helped numerous charities, have inspired countless young and aspiring hockey players and have increased the local youth hockey footprint in the area exponentially over the last 20 years.
Perhaps what’s gone under the radar is what he has meant to his teammates over the years, and how – from his very first day in the League – his willingness to be himself while allowing everyone else in the room to do the same has gradually help build and foster the culture that has turned Washington into an NHL destination city, a place where players want to live and want to play.
After Thursday’s game in Montreal, Ovechkin offered a couple of displays of that leadership. Unprompted, and as the first of several players to speak to the media after the game, Ovechkin dropped the first breadcrumbs leading to the unveiling of the night’s biggest story, the birth of Dylan Strome’s third daughter. Strome collected three assists in the game, including on Ovechkin’s second goal late in the third period, the one that put the game out of reach.
“Obviously, since first shift, I think Stromer was feeling it,” said Ovechkin. “Obviously it’s a huge day for him and his family, but yeah, it’s pretty cool.”
Next, he was asked about coming out of an early season slump and what’s working for him now. Again, he tacked on an addendum after answering the question.
“Sometimes there’s going to be ups and downs,” he said. “Sometimes you have to find a way to put the puck in the net and kind of give you more relief. But obviously, you can see all those goals are pretty big plays by Stromer: the face-off, 2-on-1. I think he was unstoppable today.”
Ovechkin then shouted out Ethen Frank and Sonny Milano, both of whom scored two goals of their own in the game, and Frank amassed four points in his first multi-point game in the NHL.
Even after scoring his 894th goal to tie Wayne Gretzky in Washington last April 4 and his 895th goal on Long Island last April 6, teammates talked about what he has meant to them.
“And at home, too,” added John Carlson, who had three assists, including a pretty primary helper on No. 894 in the April 4 game against Chicago. “There’s so much celebration for so long in this building, from the fans in this city for him and what he’s built here. And I think it goes without saying, his place in Capitals history, and DC history, and DC sports history; I think he is that pillar.
“And I think that’s even more special in somewhat of a familiar place [his left dot office], and also just in front of these fans that were begging for it all night, which was pretty cool to see, the engagement.”
Two days later in New York, in the aftermath of No. 895, the feelings were even more prominent.
“I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet,” said longtime teammate Tom Wilson, who fed Ovechkin for the record-breaker. “It’s incredible. It’s the biggest goal in the history of the NHL, and to be in here with all our best friends and a great captain, a great teammate, a great friend, I’m just so proud of him, and I’m so happy for him, and he’s done so much for all of us, all of our careers, this organization, this city, his family, all our families. It’s just truly special to be a part of, and I’m so, so happy for him.
“It’s just an honor to be living through this and to see this. And you know, 10-year-old me – or 10-year-old any of us – to be able to be in a room with Wayne and Ovi during this moment is so special, and he’s taken us on an amazing journey. And it’ll be the honor of my career to play with O; I learn so much from him, win with him, watch him score this goal. There’s really no words to describe it.
“It makes me a little bit emotional, just because I think so much of him. And to be able to be beside him forever in a big goal, I feel very lucky, I feel very honored to be a part of that. And it’s not about me at all. I’m just really proud, and I love that guy, and I love his family, and I’m really happy for him.”
Strome echoed the same sentiments.
“Unbelievable,” says Strome. “Thankful. He’s incredible. There’s no other words to describe him; he’s incredible. Incredible human being, family man, person. I’m honored, honestly. I get to play on his line every night the last three years – almost every night – and to play on the power play with him.
“The way he acts, the way he treats people. He goes out of his way to be kind. I mean, the guy goes over to his son after every goals and he taps the glass. You don’t see that. He’s a legend. There’s not enough good words to say about him, and I’m very, very honored that I get to be on his line.”
Three weeks ago, in the minutes immediately after goal No. 900 against St. Louis, there were more verbal bouquets from teammates.
“It’s incredible,” says Carlson. “I mean, truly, I know it seems like after the rodeo that we’ve been on the last year or two, you get numb to it. But then you think about it, and it’s just incredible what he’s done. And being alongside him for so long, you’ve seen just so many milestones that it’s insane, but just the history that will maybe never be touched again.
“So, it’s extremely cool and special to be a part of it, to be playing in the games, and all the rest. These are moments that whenever everybody’s done and retired, you’ll remember these ones a lot more than a lot of other things.”
That’s true for players and fans alike, we’ve all been truly blessed to witness the exploits of the last of the 22 players ever to wear No. 8 for the Washington Capitals.
“It’s tough to find the words,” says Chychrun of being the only player in NHL history to collect an assist on a teammate’s 900th career goal. “Honestly, it’s just special. [Ovechkin] has been just a big, big bright spot in my life, and being able to be here with him and watch him do what he does, and be a part of it in a small, small way has been very special.
“I’m just cherishing the moment, soaking it all in and you just don’t want these moments to end.”
Cherish the moment for sure, all of them. But don’t worry about Wednesday’s ceremony being the last one. That No. 8 sweater is going in the Capital One Arena rafters one of these days, and the Hockey Hall of Fame induction will certainly merit another full house celebration at the big barn on F St. But those will wait for another day, when all the numbers stop moving, when the records stop being broken, even the ones Ovechkin already holds.
We’re not there yet. The numbers keep moving. Where we are now is 907 goals, and counting. And Wednesday’s game against WInnipeg will mark 1,515 games for Ovechkin, and counting. That’s one more than Steve Yzerman (1,514), moving The Great Eight into sole possession of 23rd place on the all-time games played list. Those numbers aren’t done moving, but the time has come to celebrate what they looked like a few weeks back.
The only number that isn’t moving is the big number eight on Ovechkin’s back, for 21 years, and 1,515 games, and counting. And that’s truly worth being thankful for and celebrating on Thanksgiving eve.
