Alex Ovechkin has four games remaining in what could be the final season of his NHL career.
Ahead of the morning skate in Toronto on Wednesday, the Washington Capitals posted part of an interview Ovechkin conducted with Capitals Radio’s John Walton, where he revealed that his decision on whether to continue playing or retire from the NHL will come over the summer.
I’m personally not sure what meaning to glean from that — it’s pretty much the same message as before, with the timing being the most significant — but there’s a part of me that wonders if this could really be it.
The Capitals appear likely to be eliminated from postseason contention in the coming days — Ovechkin has always stated that team success and winning the Stanley Cup mean much more to him than individual accolades — and it’s unclear how competitive the continually-retooling-and-sorta-rebuilding Capitals will be next season.
Ovechkin is having one of the greatest seasons of all-time for a 40-year-old, becoming just the fourth over-the-hill player in NHL history to score 30 goals or more at age 40 or older, joining the likes of Gordie Howe (2x: 44g in 1968-69; 31g in 1969-70), Johnny Bucyk (36g in 1975-76), and Teemu Selanne (31g in 2010-11). But we also know he required heavy sheltering from the coaching staff to do that. Other past interviews suggest that Ovechkin feels there’s not much left to accomplish in the NHL, and that this year was always planned to be it. Even the Capitals brought back paper tickets, but just for this season, which has always been a big hmm.
Then there’s Nick Kypreos’s report earlier this month that Ovechkin is not interested in a farewell tour and liked how Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement ahead of his final regular-season game. Given how little Ovechkin speaks to the local media now — and how short and uninterested he seems in those sessions (there is no judgment in me saying this, as he’s been doing this for 21 years, I am part of the local media, and my face does not make anyone excited to speak) — I tend to believe there’s truth in Kypreos’s reporting. If you think about it, Ovechkin already did so much — for every city he visited during the goals chase.
If he were to retire over the summer, the Capitals could still make it a big event, just like they did with TJ Oshie’s announcement last June, when he officially announced his career was over where the championship Capitals swam in fountains. Oshie’s announcement aired live on Monumental Sports Network, the media station owned by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the team.
Then there’s Columbus. Ovechkin’s first NHL game came against Columbus on October 5, 2005, breaking the glass on his first shift and scoring the first two NHL goals of what would become one of the greatest hockey careers of all time. Right now, his last game is scheduled for April 14 against the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Ending his career against the team he first terrorized? There’s something beautiful in that.
So for all those reasons, and more, I will be attending the Capitals’ final regular-season game this season against the Blue Jackets. I bought a ticket a few weeks ago, and I will not be doing any blogging. I will be enjoying the game.
Two decades ago, I sat at the top of then-MCI Center as a senior at UMBC, watching Ovechkin play for the first time. That night was, honestly, one of the most hopeful and wonderful nights of my life. Ovechkin was immediately the greatest player I had ever seen touch the ice in a Capitals jersey, and I knew, just seeing him skate around with his joyful exuberance, that someday the Capitals would win the Stanley Cup — something that I hoped to witness before leaving this Earth (and no, I don’t mean as part of a future Artemis mission).
Thirteen years later, Ovechkin delivered a championship to this city — after a lot of painful first and second-round exits. He persevered. And 20 years later, he’s given us so much more. I have told this story to so many people, but in 1998, when I was in middle school, the Capitals made the Stanley Cup Finals. I just remember showing up to school wearing my white Screaming Eagle Capitals jersey, and I was the only kid in school wearing one. Since Ovechkin made his mark on this area, not only do people here care about hockey, but there’s a thriving community of hockey players both on and off the ice.
Watching Ovi play — living in this area and getting a firsthand look at his career… selfishly experiencing it and enjoying it — has truly been one of the biggest honors of my life. I will always look back at this time as the greatest years of my life, and he and the Capitals are such a crucial part of that.
So I am going to Columbus on Tuesday because when he takes the ice for warmups, I’m going to clap. During the game, when Ovi touches the puck, I’m going to cheer. And at the end of the night, when the final horn sounds, I’m going to rise to my feet and roar — no matter if Ovi’s career is over or not and no matter how weirdly Blue Jackets fans look at me.
Let’s make Tuesday’s game in Columbus as close to a Capitals home game as possible. Because if Ovi’s going out, he deserves to go out in front of a loud sold-out arena, appreciating him for what he is: the greatest goal-scorer of all time, the greatest power forward of all time, and the most durable player of all time, who changed DC Sports forever.
