RALEIGH, N.C. — It was still more than 15 minutes before the puck dropped here Wednesday night, and the behemoth of a scoreboard hanging above the ice showed the Washington Capital warming up in sweater No. 8, and the announcer followed with, “All eyes are on Alex Ovechkin,” and the cheers came loudly. When there was a sliver of a pause in the national anthem, a call came from a fan tucked in a corner of Lenovo Center: “Let’s go, Ovi!”
And how about when he scored?
Was this in North Carolina? Or in Chinatown?
We have reached the point in Ovechkin’s march toward Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record when a pursuit that, for so long, seemed almost theoretical is now very, very real. The tally, entering Wednesday’s forgettable and fight-filled 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes: three to tie Gretzky at 894, four to pass.
The tally now: Two to tie, three to pass.
“It’s game-by-game,” Ovechkin said. “We’ll see.”
Feels real. No. 892 came on a 5-on-3 advantage, a wrister that flat beat Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen like so many wristers have flat beaten so many goalies for two decades. So it’s on to Friday at home against the Chicago Blackhawks — the next opportunity for Ovechkin’s every shift and every shot to cause the heart to jump into the throat. This time, at Capital One Arena, there will be even more red-and-white No. 8 jerseys than there were Wednesday night at Lenovo Center — and there were a lot.
“It’s going to be pretty crazy,” Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk said. “It feels like it’s right there. And he feels like he’s still scoring every night.”
But as this chase becomes bedlam — and it officially crossed that line Tuesday in Boston, where goal 891 made hardcore Bruins fans rise from their seats in appreciation — it’s worth acknowledging a particularly special aspect of Ovechkin’s impending accomplishment.
Gretzky played for four teams — and we’ll get to that. Gordie Howe became “Mr. Hockey” in Detroit, but he finished up as a middle-aged man in Hartford. Jaromir Jagr played for — count ’em — nine franchises, Brett Hull for five, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito for three apiece.
Ovechkin has played for … one. One team. One town. One sweater. One cause. Eight hundred ninety-two goals in 1,485 games — all as a Washington Capital.
“It means a lot,” Ovechkin said. “I’m happy to be part of it. Lots of players was involved. It’s a big honor.”
Only one other player in the top 10 in goals can make that same claim. All of Steve Yzerman’s 692 tallies came wearing the winged wheel of the Detroit Red Wings. A spot behind Yzerman — in 11th — is Mario Lemieux, who scored 690 times, all for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It’s just … rare. This is no fault of any of the game’s greatest goal-scorers. Gretzky didn’t want to be traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles, but Oilers ownership thought it was the best business decision. (Quick: Do you remember for which team Gretzky had a cup of coffee between L.A. and finishing his career?) Howe suited up in his later days for the Houston Aeros and then the Whalers of the old World Hockey Association, mostly to play with his sons Mark and Marty, and logged his final NHL games when the WHA folded and the Whalers moved to the NHL.
Transience is part of professional sports. Willie Mays, a Giant through and through, finished as a New York Met. Tom Brady has kids all over New England named for him. He ended his career with Tampa Bay. Ray Bourque, who defined the Boston Bruins for a generation, went to Colorado to finally win a title. There’s no shame in any of it.
(Gretzky, you might remember, played 18 games at the end of the 1995-96 season with … the St. Louis Blues. Eight of his 894 goals came there.)
But Ovechkin’s status as a Capital when it started and a Capital whenever it ends and a Capital for all the time in between adds a layer to his pursuit that should mean so much to Washington.
Think of the other athletes who might be in consideration for the best in the history of the nation’s capital. Yeah, Walter Johnson only pitched for the Washington Senators, but unless you were in town in 1927 — and maybe you were — you missed the last of his 417 wins over 21 seasons. Darrell Green counts — a Hall of Famer whose 295 games were all in the burgundy and gold of Washington’s NFL franchise. Ryan Zimmerman will always be “Mr. National,” but he is more legendary locally and didn’t come close to landing in Cooperstown.
Beyond that? John Riggins and Art Monk? Riggo began his career with the New York Jets, and Monk finished his with the Jets and then the Eagles. Sonny Jurgensen started in Philadelphia before being traded to D.C. Wes Unseld is the greatest Washington Bullet/Wizard of all-time, but he began his career when the franchise was in Baltimore.
Keep thinking. It’s a fun game.
Yet in order for it to play out this way, it took some creativity. Twice.
The first time came in January of 2008, before Ovechkin’s Capitals had so much as played a single playoff game, let alone won a Stanley Cup. Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, team president Dick Patrick and then-general manager George McPhee were discussing an extension for Ovechkin, who was only 22. The sides agreed to the parameters of a five-year deal. They decided they would finalize things the next day.
But when Ovechkin left, Patrick gathered his people.
“Dick is notoriously cheap,” Leonsis told me years later. “But it was Dick who said, ‘Why don’t we sleep on this, and offer him his first five years, and then another seven years to get to 12?’ That was radical. That was a non-hockey move.”
Ovechkin’s counter the next day: Why not 13? And that’s what they did.
The next pivot point came in the summer of 2021, when that monstrous 13-year deal expired. Ovechkin negotiated directly with Leonsis and Brian MacLellan, by then the GM. Their agreement: Five more years, guaranteeing he would be a Capital for life.
“We wanted him to finish his career here,” MacLellan said later that summer. “He deserves it.”
Even then, though, it was hard to imagine Gretzky being within reach. Wednesday night, with another blistering wrister in a career full of them, Ovechkin reeled the Great One in even closer. Can you be there Friday night? Every shift, every shot, could bring history closer still.
