Washington Capitals players showed support for the Washington Commanders ahead of the NFL team’s huge playoff game against the Detroit Lions, Saturday night.
The entire Caps roster appeared to wear Commanders gear as they arrived at Capital One Arena for their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Most notably, Alex Ovechkin — soon to become hockey’s greatest goal-scorer — rocked a Jayden Daniels jersey under his suit. Daniels, the Commanders’ superstar rookie quarterback, helped lead the team to their first postseason win in 19 years against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week. Ovechkin scored 848 career goals during the Commanders’ playoff win drought from January 7, 2006, to January 13, 2025.
Other players to wear Commanders jerseys included Tom Wilson, who rocked a maroon Bobby Wagner jersey, and John Carlson, who threw on a white Terry McLaurin jersey.
Other team members went with more of a subtle salute, as Aliaksei Protas, Nic Dowd, Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael, Rasmus Sandin, Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren, Brandon Duhaime, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Taylor Raddysh, and Martin Fehervary all wore black Commanders “Take Command” shirts.
Many Capitals players are legitimate Commanders fans, including Ovechkin, who has attended at least one Commanders game for nearly the last decade with many of his Russian teammates.
“When I first came [to DC], I did not understand what baseball, American football is,” Ovechkin said in an interview in 2023. ”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’s attended games live at Northwest Stadium no matter how bad the traffic is and has become friendly with Commanders co-owner Magic Johnson since new ownership arrived.
