ARLINGTON, VA — The Washington Capitals brought on some new members of the team on Thursday, hosting their annual Hockey Fights Cancer skate at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. After wrapping up practice, players welcomed children undergoing cancer treatment or in remission and their families, lacing up their skates for an afternoon of fun.
This year’s skate featured a bonus activity: lessons from the NHL’s greatest goal scorer.
Alex Ovechkin set up shop in his office at the left faceoff dot, teaching kids how to shoot the puck just like he does.
“He’s always got the biggest smile out there,” head coach Spencer Carbery said of Ovechkin.
Nearly 30 children participated in the skate through Blood Cancer United Mid-Atlantic, Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic, MedStar Health, and Sunrise Day Camp Greater Washington. The festivities started in the locker room, where each child met a player who had been paired with them for the day and got help gearing up.
Then, the real fun began. Some kids were off to the races as soon as they hit the ice, but players offered NHL-caliber coaching to those who hadn’t skated before. Evelyn, who was paired with Pierre-Luc Dubois, proved a quick study.
“[I saw] her go from a walker to the chair to a stick to no hands all in one day,” said Dubois. “And at the end, she went from one end to the other to score a goal all by herself.”
And for others, the real fun wasn’t in skating — it was sitting in a chair while players sped down the ice as fast as they could.
Between skating practice and shooting lessons, there was still plenty of time for shenanigans, especially with a prank-happy team like the Capitals. Goaltender Logan Thompson taught Sunny, a returning attendee from the 2025 skate, how to make snowballs out of shaved ice.
Don’t let the video fool you—Thompson started the snowball fight.
Even injured players got in on the fun. Vincent Desharnais, who remains out of the lineup after undergoing an appendectomy last month, was paired with Grady, a 16-year-old sport analytics enthusiast; Desharnais hasn’t started skating again, so the two instead spent quality time on the bench.
Players also decked out in lavender Hockey Fights Cancer gear for the special occasion. Arguably the best accessories were the old-school mullet wigs.
The new hairdos made the already-towering Protas brothers even taller. Paired with twin brothers Flynn and Bennett for the skate, Aliaksei and Ilya engaged in some good old fashioned sibling competition, with Aliaksei eventually ending up taking the net.
“We haven’t practiced it in a long, long time,” Ilya said after the skate. “I remember [Aliaksei] and dad (playing goalie) when I was maybe seven years old. He hasn’t been in the net for a long time.”
Funny business aside, the skate proved a powerful experience for both participants and the Capitals, filling the rink with laughter for families used to confronting the unthinkable. Something as simple as a hour of time together was enough to create lifelong memories, and players were thrilled to bring that joy to others.
“You see how much fun they’re having, how happy they are,” Ilya Protas said. “It brings those emotions, you kind of just cry, but it’s just unbelievable. It’s a great feeling inside you, seeing how much they love it here and having fun just being around us.”
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