Hershey Bears fans got a memorable experience on September 25 when the Washington Capitals played an NHL preseason game at Giant Center for the first time in nearly two decades.
Former Bears head coach Spencer Carbery, the NHL’s reigning head coach of the year, gave lineup spots to many players from Hershey’s back-to-back Calder Cup championship teams in 2023 and 2024 who remained with the franchise. He even iced both pairs of brothers in the organization: Aliaksei & Ilya Protas and Dylan & Matt Strome.
But according to the younger Strome, there was another special surprise planned: Alex Ovechkin was scheduled to come up to Hershey and play in the game.
“You know, one day at lunch up in Washington, I was just sitting there and John Carlson came up to me and he said, ‘I heard it’s you, your brother, and Ovi as a line,’” Matt Strome said on Tuesday, per a video published to X by FOX 43’s Todd Sadowski. “I was obviously excited. Obviously, I didn’t play with those two because Ovi had a small injury there.”
Ovechkin, who broke the NHL goals record on April 6, suffered a lower-body injury on the first day of Capitals Training Camp and missed the team’s first four preseason games. The 40-year-old forward did not fly up with the rest of the team to Hershey, despite jokes to the contrary, instead staying home in the Washington, DC area.
While Ovechkin did not end up making the trip, Strome still named the preseason game as one of the bright spots in his hockey career. Strome suited up with his brother for the first time in over two decades, and Carbery even gave the two the start before filtering them out to their assigned lines for the game.
“Yeah, first day of practice, Carbs came up to me and said, ‘Tell your parents to get down to Hershey because you’re playing in the game,’” Matt said. “I didn’t really know what to think. I just couldn’t stop smiling for the next four or five days after that. It was 22 years since I played on the same team as my brother and to be able to start and do it in front of Hershey fans was unbelievable.”
He added, “I think [Dylan] won the faceoff pretty clean, so I was used to him doing that. It was so cool to have my parents there and my billet parents drove down for the day to watch the game. Just the support, I know all my family back home was watching. It was really cool.”
Entering what may be his final NHL season, Ovechkin has played in Hershey only once during his career, and never as part of the AHL team. Ahead of his rookie season in the NHL, The Great 8 played in a Capitals preseason game on September 25, 2005, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The then 20-year-old Ovechkin did not score or register a point in the 4-2 exhibition win. Notable players to suit up that night included Mike Green, Jeff Halpern, and Paul Bissonnette. The game also marked Ovechkin’s first matchup against future Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Two decades later, Ovechkin mentioned the Capitals’ AHL affiliate during his Breakdown Day interview after the Capitals were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs. When asked if he was going to retire, Ovechkin joked that “I just packed my stuff. I’m going to Hershey. They have playoffs, so I’ll see you there.”
A customized Ovechkin Bears jersey popped up at Giant Center days later, showing just how much the fanbase had gotten behind the legendary star over the years, too.
