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Capitals pup, Captain, attends final game as team dog

By Ian Oland

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February 20, 2021 11:21 pm

Captain, the Capitals’ adorable adopted puppy, attended his final game as team dog on Saturday.

“what an amazing last 17 months of being a hockey dog !!” Captain wrote on his personal dog phone. “from my debut, developing my skills and meeting all my best hockey pals, ive had the bestest time with the caps ! but its almost time for me to go off and do what ive been training for my whole life! i’ll still be posting here as i go to training camp in a few days so keep following along !! and today im seeing my buds for the last time as a member of team.”

The Capitals and Captain documented the day and it was pawesome.

First, before going inside the arena, Captain posed for a photo.

Then he ambled in for warmups where Jakub Vrana and Garnet Hathaway waited along the glass to say hi to their best bud.

Captain also managed to find his cardboard cutout twin in the upper bowl.

The Capitals would go on to lose to the New York Rangers 4-1, but it was still a special day.

Now that Captain has finished basic training and socialization, he is returning back to Smithtown, New York, to begin his formal service dog training. The Capitals adopted Captain through America’s VetDogs, a New York-based non-profit that provides service dogs to veterans and first responders with disabilities.

Captain, who was born on July 22. 2019, was first introduced as the Capitals team dog when he was ten-weeks old.

The male yellow Labrador made his debut with the team during the team’s Rock the Red Carpet event. Alex Ovechkin cradled Captain in his arms and walked him into Capital One Arena ahead of the team’s home opener against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 5. 2019.

Since then, Captain has stolen fans’ hearts from his interactions with players and fans to his presence in the team’s annual dog calendar.

Photo: Cara Bahniuk/RMNB

Captain was voted the NHL’s Best Team Dog in the 2020 Fan Choice Awards and landed on an Upper Deck trading card in 2021. Other accolades Captain received included Sports Dog of the Year from ESPN’s Katie Nolan and a 14/10 rating from WeRateDogs.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Rangers

Headline photo courtesy of @CapsPup

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