RMNB’s complete guide to Washington Capitals goal songs (plus rankings)

In 2025-26, the Washington Capitals scored 261 goals. 139 of those goals happened on home ice at Capital One Arena, with the goal buzzer followed immediately by the personal goal song of the goal-scorer. It’s a tradition adopted from baseball; the MLB had been doing some form of it since the 1970s. Think of it like a WWE entrance theme but in reverse.

This is your complete guide to the goal songs of the Washington Capitals, starting with 2026-27 and then journeying back into the past. We’ve got the good, the bad, and the ones you never hear because those guys never score.

2026-27 Washington Capitals goal songs

Broken down by player, and with my completely unnecessary and completely indispensable critical analysis.

Anthony Beauvillier

I Don’t Care by Icona Pop & Charli XCX

A modern yell-along classic. Sounds best after dismantling a margarita tower. A perfect choice for Beauvillier, born June 8, 1997, which would make him the 90s b—- the song refers to.

Jakob Chychrun

You Say by Lauren Daigle

Baffling. Chychrun scored at home 19 times in 2025-26, so this song was heard more than any other tune, tied with Wilson’s. The vague religious content of the song could apply to American evangelicalism, general protestantism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, most of Hinduism, and definitely Satanism. Not Calvinism.

 

Vincent Desharnais

Alors on Danse by Stromae

It’s French and monotone, but it’s Desharnais, so it’s not like we’re going to hear it much.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

Hey Baby by DJ Ötzi

What if Guy Fieri did sterile continental euro dance music? Asked and answered.

Martin Fehervary

Pump It by The Black Eyed Peas

I have to remind myself that there was a time when BEP was cool. In 1998 they were trying to be a Tribe tribute act basically. Then they got hungry for money and made some of the dorkiest cash-grabs of the 21st century.

Ethen Frank

Boyz in the Hood by Eazy-E (ft. Ice Cube)

Easy was obviously not the most talented rapper in the NWA stable, but his charisma was undeniable. This extreeeeemmeeelly problematic song somehow got the blessings of the team, which is curious given another player whose song got rejected.

Cole Hutson

Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis

Great song. Put this together with Ovechkin’s controversial pick and you’ve got a couple classic rock bangers that we should hear maybe 30 times in 2026-27? Hutson’s tune was actually selected by Pierre-Luc Dubois, besting some unnamed Drake songs. Interesting.

Jordan Kyrou

What Do You Mean by Justin Bieber

Kyrou had his pick, “Janice STFU” by Drake, but the team vetoed it for not being family-friendly. You barely have to scroll up to see “Boyz in the Hood” for Ethen Frank, which is ten times more edgy than “Janice,” but maybe the Caps made the calculation that Frank is way less likely to score than Kyrou. This Bieber song is worse than both.

Ryan Leonard

Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

After Leno goals in Capital One Arena, they play the part of this very long song with the three-guitar harmonized solo, which is a classic choice. There’s a few generations of people that associate this song with Jenny from Forrest Gump walking on the ledge of a high-rise balcony; I like the goals more. Leonard picked the song after Team USA used it extensively at World Juniors.

Timothy Liljegren

Levels by Avicii

An all-timer, so long as the time is 2011 to 2015. The late DJ was himself a hockey fan. Following his untimely passing in 2018, a hockey arena was renamed in his honor.

Charlie Lindgren

Should’ve Been A Cowboy by Toby Keith

If your memory of Toby Keith is the strange choices he made in his late career, you missed some genius songcraft. He put out bangers before things changed; this was just one of many. If I had to put a date on when everything changed for Toby, it’d perhaps be 9/11.

Alex Ovechkin

Shake, Rattle, and Roll by Big Joe Turner

The thing about Joe Turner is that he was successful because he belted so loud you could hear him over the band without amplification. It’s one of those early rock and roll songs where its duty was to restate the thesis for rock and roll. Mission accomplished, but why is this Alex Ovechkin’s song? More on this below.

Aliaksei Protas

Country Roads by John Denver

Protas had to ask TJ Oshie for permission to use his old goal song. There’s a big singalong every time Pro scores (12 times last season), kind of like in Logan Lucky – underrated movie.

Ilya Protas

Let’s Get Loud by Jennifer Lopez

Fun fact: This song was written by Gloria Estefan, whom I do not like. “Let’s Get Loud” didn’t chart in the US upon release on her On the 6 breakthrough album, but it has become her most popular song – aside from a collab with Pitbull I have never heard and hope to die before hearing.

Rasmus Sandin

Freed from Desire by Gala

Why. Sandin has his whole ACL surgery recovery period to pick a better song.

Justin Sourdif

Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders

If you saw the title, and you go, “I don’t know this song,” I promise you you do. You learned it from clips and memes, like how we learn everything else these days.

Dylan Strome

Tequila by The Champs

Danny Flores wrote “Tequila” under a pseudonym to avoid contract trouble, which was unfortunate. The Champs screwed him out of all royalties until a few years before his death. All true 90s kids just know it as the song from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Do the dance right now.

Jack St. Ivany

Sunrise by Morgan Wallen

This is the song you pick when you have zero expectation of scoring a goal. This tune by Wallen, best known to me as the “racist country singer” who owns the bar Hayley Williams was singing about, was playing on Sidney Mecham’s car stereo before he went on a rage-induced detour through a parade.

Logan Thompson

Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf

A fantastic choice we will never, ever hear. Thompson, you may recall, is a goalie.

Alex Tuch

Rockstar by Nickelback

A terrible choice by a terrific player, “Rockstar” is flat-out the worst song by the Canadian band.

Tom Wilson

Boom by Tiësto & Sevenn

Who goes to Tiësto for a brief, minimalistic jam? You go to him when you want something lush and ornate. There’s no singalong portions, there’s no big melody. Tom has gotten so many bad parts out of his game over the years – this is the last bad habit he needs to purge.

The Washington Capitals’ fallback goal song

The player’s song play only if it’s obvious that he scored. In case of an unclear goal-scorer, the Capitals’ default goal song is “Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe. I added the umlauts out of respect.

According to the Crue biography The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, bassist Nikki Sixx wrote the song about his heroin overdose. The lyrics from the relevant section:

Woah, yeah
Kickstart my heart, give it a start
Woah, yeah
Baby
Woah, yeah
Kickstart my heart, hope it never stops
Woah, yeah
Baby, yeah

You generally only hear “Kickstart” if it’s a total mystery who scored the goal. Those are usually fun, messy goals. Or sometimes own-goals by the other goalie.

Years back, in the era before personalized goal songs, Capital One Arena (then known as Verizon Center) would play “The Wicker Man” by Iron Maiden after every goal.

You know it as the one where the guy yells “Your time will come!” That guy is Bruce Dickinson, by the way, and he’s a legend.

Alex Ovechkin’s goal song controversy

We’d understand if you’re confused by Alex Ovechkin, a Russian who grew up in the eurodance-heavy 90s, chose “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” by Big Joe Turner as his goal song. Turner is an important figure in the mid-century evolution of rock-and-roll from a regional blend of jazz, blues, and gospel into what it’d become within a couple of years, i.e. less exciting background music for white kids at dance halls. That’s an important story among musicologists, sociologists, and Ken Burns, but maybe not as resonant for a guy who wears sweatpants over his jeans.

In 2020, as reported by Tarik El-Bashir for The Athletic, Ovechkin was nursing a goal drought at home and decided he needed a new goal song to change his luck. Ovechkin flipped through his playlist, which – inexplicably – had “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” on it – and he picked it. Mike Vogel, senior writer for the Caps and a man with impeccable musical taste, was nearby and said, “That’s badass. That should be the one.”

Seems like that was the whole deliberation right there.

Previously, Ovechkin’s goal song had been “Still D.R.E.” by Dr. Dre off his classic Chronic 2001 album.

But one wonders, if Ovechkin were given wide latitude, if he might choose a song more connected to his personal experience, such as “Champion” by Sasha Belyi, a 2012 song to which Ovechkin contributed a guest verse.

Those lyrics:

Alumni of Dynamo
8 on the back.
In the All-Star game all attention is on me.

On the NatTeam since 17
Scored 100 points in a season
Gold medal in Canada in ’08

Among the ten best players of the decade,
Stick in my hands, Rap in my headphones,
Saying hello from Washington,
Together with Sanya Belyi,
For every champion

The curious case of “Hell Yeah” by Rev Theory

Pillars of the early 2000s butt-rock scene, Rev Theory is famous for providing the theme songs for three different WWE pay-per-view events and Randy Orton’s entrance theme. For a minute during the late Bush and early Obama administrations, this band cornered the market on background music for clips of athletes moving with purpose.

Do we think Justin Schultz was a big Rev Theory fan? He was 17 when “Hell Yeah” came out. Possibly. It was his goal song, and presumably played for all four of his home goals between 2020-21 and 2021-22. Then Schultz left for Seattle and Rasmus Sandin came from Toronto.

Sandin’s goal song? Also “Hell Yeah” by Rev Theory! What are the chances? He was 7 and living in Uppsala, Sweden when “Hell Yeah” came out. No way in hell he chose that song, as further evidenced by him switching to “Freed from Desire” by Gala in 2025-26 (an equally bad song).

So here’s the question: Was “Hell Yeah” the default song for players who couldn’t pick a goal song? We will find out and report back to you.

Washington Capitals victory song

It’s “Bustin’ Loose” by DC legend and the godfather of go-go Chuck Brown.

The 1979 version of Bustin’ is a prototype for go-go music. As Brown further developed his sound, the song gained more of the syncopation and swing that typifies the genre. There’s a 1987 performance recorded at the old Capital Center that contains a bit of “Bustin’ Loose,” and by then it sounds like a whole other animal.

Caps goal songs from previous seasons

Reconstructed from memory, dozens of source, one tweet archive, and one inside source, here is every Caps goal song we could track down, along with Peter’s objective and correct rating for that song – both its quality and appropriateness in being heard after that player’s goals. (Not up for debate.)

2025-26 Washington Capitals goal songs

2024-25 Washington Capitals goal songs

2023-24 Washington Capitals goal songs

2022-23 Washington Capitals goal songs

2021-22 Washington Capitals goal songs

2020-21 Washington Capitals goal songs

2019-20 Washington Capitals goal songs

Note: Kuznetsov’s song may have changed a few times this season. He had used the instrumental version of “How Low” by Ludacris and briefly “Fly Like An Eagle” by Steve Miller Band.

Spotify playlist of Capitals goal songs

Assembled by yours truly. Put it on at parties to confound and worry your friends.