With a doink off the right upright, Zane Gonzalez’s 37-yard field goal gave the Washington Commanders a last-second 23-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card game, Sunday.
DOINKED IT IN FOR THE DUB!!!!!
📺 #WASvsTB @SNFonNBC pic.twitter.com/3WvqkokVMV
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) January 13, 2025
Not only did the win mark rookie quarterback Jayden Daniel’s first playoff victory in the NFL, but it also gave the Commanders their first postseason dub since January 7, 2006, when Washington beat the same Buccaneers franchise 17–10 with Mark Brunell behind center — Dan Snyder’s second and final postseason victory as owner of the team.
The 19-year and 5-day drought between playoff wins began during Alex Ovechkin’s rookie season in the NHL and ended with the now Capitals captain on the precipice of history.
According to a viral tweet from ESPN 630’s Mike Callow, Ovechkin scored a staggering 848 regular-season goals during that span. He now sits 21 goals away from Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark of 894.
On 01/06/2006 Alex Ovechkin scored career goal 25 in his 05-06 rookie season. The next night the Redskins would beat the Bucs in the playoffs
The Commanders just beat the Bucs for their first playoff win since, w/ Ovi scoring 848 goals in between Washington football playoff wins
— Mike Callow (@Mike_Callow) January 13, 2025
En route to winning the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 2006, Ovechkin scored 25 goals before the Commanders’ playoff victory against the Bucs on January 7, 2006. Nine days later, on January 16, Ovechkin scored The Goal in front of then Phoenix Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky, a twisting and turning miracle of a shot after he fell to the ice.
During that span, the Washington football franchise had three different names and Ovechkin scored 920 goals total, if you include the postseason. Ovechkin also became the only player in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup as well as the Conn Smythe, Calder, Art Ross, Hart, Ted Lindsay, and Maurice Richard Trophies. He scored 50 goals nine times, tied for the most in NHL history. Ovi even became an American football fan himself.
“When I first came [to DC], I did not understand what baseball, American football is,” Ovechkin said. ”It took me five to six years to understand at least some rules. And now I really love going to games, I love watching matches. It’s really exciting. They are just machines. They run very fast.”
Ovechkin was honored on the field by the Commanders in 2018 after helping lead the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup.
He’s attended home games when he can since then, no matter how bad the traffic is, and has become friendly with Commanders’ co-owner Magic Johnson.
The Commanders will continue their playoff run next week as they play the number-one seeded Detroit Lions in Motown.
