#alex-ovechkin

#alex-ovechkin

It's Tom Wilson, future Olympian and formerly despised pariah. Please forgive me; I'm about to piss a lot of you off with a graph. Here is Tom Wilson compared to pest-cum-superstar Brad Marchand: Except for Wilson's ACL injury, they're the same dude. They're a low-ice-time drama king who slowly worked his way up the lineup. Now they're indispensable, but they're still drama kings.

The tally, his 15th of the 2025-26 season, tied the game 3-3, and the Washington Capitals eventually proved victorious in overtime via a clutch marker from Jakob Chychrun. By scoring his 15th goal in his 38th game of the campaign, Ovechkin became the fifth-fastest player aged 40-or-older to score 15 goals in an NHL season. He also moved past Steve Yzerman (14) for the 11th-most goals scored in an age-40 season.

It's a good thing that they still remember me and they still recognize me," Ovechkin said. "A couple of kids (told me) congrats about the record and the 900, so that's special.

Alex Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in NHL history and one of the league's all-time greatest players. The 40-year-old legendary winger would seemingly have every reason to become aloof and withdrawn from his teammates, but he has done the complete opposite and continued to foster a winning environment with the Washington Capitals. Bruce Boudreau, who coached a much younger Ovechkin for parts of five seasons with the Capitals (2007-2012), has seen firsthand the impact The Great 8 has had on the club's culture.

Upper Deck, the NHL's exclusive trading card partner, is putting out their most expensive, premium card box of the year, "2024-25 The Cup," on Wednesday. In this year's product, several of hockey's most legendary players will have one-of-one Exquisite patch autographs scattered throughout the thousands of boxes produced, and Ovechkin's, in particular, is super special.

It's safe to say Alex Ovechkin is back to being Alex Ovechkin after a slow start to the season, where he scored just three goals in his first 15 games. Ovechkin has 9 goals in his last 11 outings and found the back of the net again Sunday against the New York Islanders. The Capitals captain scored an empty-net goal with 31 seconds remaining in the game, skating through an Adam Pelech poke-check for his 909th career goal.

Alex Ovechkin: Yeah, obviously it feels pretty special. A special moment. No one in history done it. To be first guy to score 900, it's pretty special moment and obviously we're going to celebrate with the teammates. Most important thing, like, my mom here, my wife, kids, and yeah, it's going to be special moment.

Montreal Canadiens winger Josh Anderson is one of the most sandpapery players in the NHL. During the playoffs, he irritated Tom Wilson so much that the ice couldn't contain the pair's brawl, and the two power forwards tried to fight each other on the Capitals bench as a referee hung on for dear life. In the Capitals and Candiens' first meeting of the 2025-26 regular season, Anderson may have bit off more than he could chew with Alex Ovechkin,

Frank's first point of the night came on his first career power-play goal and his first goal of the season. Taking a pass from Alex Ovechkin as he skated into the slot, Frank ripped a shot past Sam Montembeault's glove, giving the Capitals a 2-1 lead 2:00 into the second period. "That first goal on the power play, that's a huge play," Caps head coach Spencer Carbery said postgame.

In the season opener two days earlier, Ovechkin kicked things off with a bang, scoring three of his team's four goals and added a shootout tally in the team's 5-4 shootout win in Ottawa. Returning to DC for the season's home opener against the Canadiens, he then proceeded to score just 20 seconds into the opening frame...and then twice more before the first period came to an end. A fourth goal in the second period rounded out his scoring for the evening en route to a dominant 6-1 win.

"Yeah. I grew up there. I played for Dynamo," Ovechkin said. "Of course, I want to play maybe one or two games. We'll see. You never know what's going to happen, right? Right now, I'm here and I'm enjoying my days here. We'll see."

Though Ovechkin didn't shoot in the first three rounds of the skills competition, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery sent him over the boards as the team's fourth shooter. That choice proved the deciding moment of the game: after Devils goaltender Jake Allen stopped Ovechkin's attempt, Simon Nemec snuck the puck past Logan Thompson for the win. Carbery told reporters postgame that Ovechkin's strong third period convinced him to give him a chance to shoot.