This is Alex Ovechkin’s season. This is still Alex Ovechkin’s franchise. This is Alex Ovechkin, doing stuff he has never done.
What next? What the heck will he do next?
He is 39. He is in his 20th season. He is — oh, heck, just insert one of the million facts about him that you already know. Such as this: Earlier this month, he passed Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL history.
Somehow, there are still more words to type and more celebrations to record. Monday night, when his Washington Capitals were in the midst of what might have been a crushing collapse, he saved them.
The Capitals opened the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Montreal Canadiens because Ovechkin scored the game’s first goal, because he assisted on the second and because, when the Caps got to overtime, he finished it by burying a pass from Anthony Beauvillier, then pumped his left fist in a way he never had before.
Eight hundred ninety-seven goals in the regular season. Seventy-four more in the playoffs.
Finally, a playoff overtime winner.
“A goal is a goal,” Ovechkin said. “It doesn’t matter in the playoffs — and especially it doesn’t matter in OT — it doesn’t matter who scored.”
It’s just a bigger deal when Ovechkin does. He doesn’t lead the NHL in all-time playoff goals — Gretzky still holds that mark, and Ovechkin isn’t close. But in the spring of 2025, every time Ovechkin finds the back of the net, there’s a historic feel. Add something he hadn’t done — when he checks one of the few boxes he hasn’t checked — and it gets to another level.
“The guy’s the best player in the world, right?” said goaltender Logan Thompson, bringing up a point that would be hotly debated but sufficed for a night. “What else can you say? … It’s a privilege to be his teammate.”
So many players have said similar things for so many years. It is, by now, as staggering as it is repetitive.
Ovechkin is the only thing separating the Capitals from so much anxiety. They are the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and Montreal was the last team in. An overtime loss Monday — after the Caps relinquished a 2-0 third-period lead — would have sent minds spinning back 15 years. Those 2010 Capitals were the top seed. Those Canadiens were the last team in. Those Capitals lost Game 1 in overtime, 3-2.
These Capitals won Game 1 in overtime — because, all these years later, Ovechkin went to the net. Because, all these years later, he has a nose for scoring. Because, all these years later, he knocked one home.
Oh, and all these years later, he registered a game-high seven hits.
“He’s a beast,” said winger Tom Wilson, who assisted on Ovechkin’s first-period power-play goal. “He’s a machine. He’s out there creating energy for our team. Scoring. He does it all. He does everything for us.”
Which includes preventing nightmares. It’s unavoidable that the way Monday night played out brought up that 2010 series, the only other time these two franchises faced each other in the playoffs. This was back in the days when the Caps were either, as Tony Kornheiser said for years, “choking dogs” or just damn hexed — or both.
Those Caps won the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy for finishing with the best regular season record. They were an offensive juggernaut, averaging an NHL-best 3.82 goals per game. They waxed the Canadiens in Games 3 and 4 — 5-1 and 6-3, respectively — to take a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the series. Closing it out was merely a formality.
Except — do you remember this? — when the Caps flew home from Montreal after Game 4, they ran into fog at Dulles and were eventually diverted to Baltimore-Washington International. Problem: It was after 1 a.m., and there were no customs officials on hand. So they waited. On the tarmac. In their seats. On the plane. Until almost 4 a.m., when the last player was processed and permitted back into the United States.
Who’s to say whether the series turned that night? But the series turned that night. Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak turned into Patrick Roy. He saved 37 of 38 Washington shots to force Game 6. He saved an astonishing 53 of 54 to force Game 7. And he stole the series from the Capitals by saving 41 of 42 in the seventh and deciding game back in the District.
Halak is what’s remembered about that series and rightfully so. But it was also the first time Ovechkin’s Capitals were labeled such significant disappointments. They are his Capitals in the good times. They are his in the bad times, too.
“He’s our leader through and through,” center Dylan Strome said.
There is different baggage now, but it’s there.
Since Ovechkin and the 2018 Capitals broke through and won that Cup, they have not won a playoff series. Not in 2019, when they blew a two-games-to-none lead to Carolina and lost a gut-punch of a Game 7 in double overtime. Not in 2020, when their time in the coronavirus bubble ended in five decisive games against the New York Islanders. Not in 2021, when Boston needed only five games to dust them. Not in 2022, when it was Florida in six. And not last year against the top-seeded New York Rangers, who swept them into the summer.
There will be no sweep in 2025. These Capitals are so much better than the groups listed above. Better in net because Thompson returned from injury and proved a steady presence. Better defensively because they finished eighth in goals allowed in the regular season. Better offensively because only Tampa Bay scored more goals.
They are different, except they still have Ovechkin. He is older. He is grayer. He broke a record so many people thought was unbreakable.
And on a Monday night, as his 16th run in the playoffs began, he showed up as the constant — again. How could it be anyone else? It is his season. It’s still his franchise. And even as the list dwindles, if there are remaining accomplishments for him, don’t bet on him to leave them undone.
