{"id":336037,"date":"2025-12-03T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/336037\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:13:10","slug":"san-jose-sharks-in-awe-of-washington-capitals-captain-alex-ovechkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/336037\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks in awe of Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Forward Will Smith \u2013 still just 20 years old \u2013 is enjoying a solid sophomore year<\/a> in the NHL and is already up to 12 goals this season as the Sharks get set to host the Washington Capitals<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

At some point during the game at SAP Center, Smith will come across Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, the NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer,<\/a> who has also scored a dozen times this season. The only difference is that Ovechkin is twice Smith\u2019s age.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d Smith said of the 40-year-old Ovechkin, who has 909 career NHL goals. <\/a>\u201cBeing that age, being able to score that many goals, and especially in his career, it\u2019s pretty crazy, and it\u2019s cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s a matter of whether this will be the last time Sharks fans will get to see Ovechkin play in San Jose<\/a>, outside of a meeting with the Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

The Capitals only visit the Sharks once per season, and Ovechkin is in the final year of a five-year, $47.5 million contract. He has not indicated at any point that this will be his last year in the NHL, but he\u2019s also not definitively said that he\u2019ll return in 2026-27 for a 22nd season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just take day by day,\u201d Ovechkin said in October before the Capitals began their season. \u201cYou have to have fun, you have to enjoy yourself, and try to do it as best as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, Ovechkin hasn\u2019t slowed down much.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin scored 44 goals last season \u2013 tied for third-most in the NHL \u2014 on his way to breaking Wayne Gretzky\u2019s record of 894 goals in April.<\/p>\n

Except for the pandemic-shortened 2020-2021 season, Ovechkin has scored at least 31 goals every year he\u2019s been in the NHL. A nine-time winner of the Maurice \u201cRocket\u201d Richard Trophy as the NHL\u2019s leading single-season goal scorer, Ovechkin has scored\u00a0at least 50 goals nine times.<\/p>\n

This year, after a somewhat tepid start with two goals and seven points in the Capitals\u2019 first 12 games, Ovechkin has 10 goals and 20 points in his last 15 games, tied for the 11th-most in the NHL in that span.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s truly amazing,\u201d said Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, who is good friends with Capitals coach Spencer Carbery. \u00a0\u201cI watch their games quite often, and it seems like every time you turn it on, Ovechkin is scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Capitals visited San Jose in March of last season, Ovechkin scored his 34th goal of the year and the 887th of his illustrious career in what became a 5-1 win over the Sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was something fun to watch him chasing and then breaking the record,\u201d said Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli, who has 297 career goals. \u201cWe were hoping that he wasn\u2019t three or four goals away coming into here, just in case. You never knew what he was going to be able to do. So obviously, extremely impressive, and last year was definitely something that I was paying attention to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, a Stanley Cup champion in 2018 and a three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner, has 17 goals and 30 points in 29 career games against the Sharks, his favorite NHL team as a kid growing up in Russia.<\/p>\n

Now, after more than two decades in the NHL, this might be his final game at the Shark Tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best all-time goal scorer in the NHL,\u201d said Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who was drafted by the Capitals in 2009, played 11 years with the team, and won the Cup with Ovechkin in 2018. \u201cNobody was thinking he was going to beat Gretzky\u2019s record, but he did it, and he\u2019s still scoring. You never know when he\u2019s going to stop playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

MISA, SKINNER RETURN<\/p>\n

Forwards Jeff Skinner and Michael Misa could be available to play on Wednesday. However, Misa could also be assigned to the Barracuda if he agrees to begin a conditioning stint in the AHL.<\/p>\n

Misa and Skinner, now on injured reserve with lower-body ailments, both took part in Tuesday\u2019s practice at Sharks Ice, with Skinner taking reps with the second power play unit.<\/p>\n

Skinner, 33, was injured in the first period of the Sharks\u2019 game against the Calgary Flames on Nov. 13, and Misa, 18, was injured during the team\u2019s morning skate on Nov. 5 before a road game against the Seattle Kraken.<\/p>\n

The Sharks already have 23 players on their active roster and would need to assign someone to the Barracuda to clear a spot for Skinner if he\u2019s available to play against the Capitals.<\/p>\n

If Misa agrees to join the Barracuda on a short-term basis, it could work as a natural bridge to Hockey Canada\u2019s training camp for the IIHF World Junior Championship, which begins later this month in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Barracuda hosts the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday and Saturday at Tech CU Arena. Hockey Canada will announce its World Juniors training camp roster on Dec. 8, and the team\u2019s camp begins on Dec. 12 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, coming from (the AHL), I think it\u2019s very beneficial to play there and have success there, and get your feet wet there and go through it,\u201d said Warsofsky, who spent three seasons as a head coach in the AHL, winning the Calder Cup in 2021-2022 with the Chicago Wolves.<\/p>\n

DESHARNAIS WEEK TO WEEK<\/p>\n

The Sharks are now at eight healthy defensemen, as Vincent Desharnais is now considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Desharnais played his most recent game on Nov. 26 when the Sharks lost 6-0 to the Colorado Avalanche. Warsofsky said Desharnais had been dealing with the injury for some time.<\/p>\n

PRACTICE REPORT<\/p>\n

Center Alexander Wennberg did not practice on Tuesday with an upper-body injury and is questionable to play on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Forward Will Smith \u2013 still just 20 years old \u2013 is enjoying a solid sophomore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[2617,191,27663,5,4,27664,168,2618,43,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-336037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-capitals","10":"tag-central-coast","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-northern-california","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-santa-clara-county","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-washington","18":"tag-washington-capitals","19":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115656524695620379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}