When Aliaksei Protas scored on an empty net and sealed the Washington Capitals’ 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators, Capital One Arena blared John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” over the loudspeakers, Wednesday night.
The goal song has long been synonymous with Capitals legend TJ Oshie, who retired in June due to lingering back issues. The team had not used the tune as a goal song since, leaving many wondering inside the barn and at home watching on TV what was going on.
After the game, Monumental Sports Network’s Alan May revealed he had the inside scoop: Protas went to his former teammate for permission to make the goal song his moving forward, and an agreement was reached.
“Well, Osh said that Big Pro came to him and asked him if he could have it,” May said of his now Monumental Sports Network cohort. “Oshie said, ‘Yes, but when you’re done, you’ve got to pass it down to a good one.’
“The crowd sing-along is too great to die with TJ, so we wanted the fans to be able to have that and electrify the arena,” May continued. “[Oshie] did a great job, passed it to an awesome guy, but now Pro knows he has a responsibility as he ages out of the league or whenever that is, hopefully it’s in 15 years or so, he’s going to be passing it on to someone who’s just barely skating right now.”
Al Koken, who reported live from the game, told the postgame show, “I kept looking up, going, ‘Wait a minute, I know that song. I’ve heard that song many, many times.’ I think it just shows you how well-respected TJ Oshie is on this team and what an influence he’s been to guys like Pro… It just speaks testament to what TJ Oshie is.”
Oshie used “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as his individual goal song for five years, from the beginning of the 2019–2020 season through his final game of the 2023-24 campaign. He remains close to the team and even recently offered shootout pointers to players during a practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
“There’s different ways to pick a goal song,” Oshie explained to the Washington Post in 2019. It is either “something that is important to you and gets you going or gets the crowd going, so I figured the best part of playing in front of our fans is them getting involved, and I figured everyone, or at least most everyone, knows at least the chorus of ‘Country Roads.’”
The Belarusian forward had previously used the hardcore Eurodance song “How Much Is The Fish?” by the German electronic group Scooter — a track first released in June 1998.
