waved off the Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 postgame handshake line<\/a>. When asked how he felt about the attention, Ovechkin deflected even that question back onto the team as a whole.<\/p>\n\u201cWell, we have attention the last couple of weeks, maybe, because we need to win, we need to collect the points, and I would say tonight was a huge win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And Ovechkin had no intention of sitting back and basking in the glory, attacking the Penguins with three big hits within the game\u2019s first period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess he\u2019s going for the hits record still,\u201d quipped Tom Wilson. \u201cHe\u2019s a machine. I love the guy. So proud of the way that every night he steps up in a different way. It\u2019s been so fun to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether Ovechkin liked it or not, however, Sunday\u2019s game wasn\u2019t just about the points in the standings, though a regulation loss would have ended Washington\u2019s playoff hopes. Instead, the matchup marked the potential end of an era in DC.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could tell the day felt different,\u201d said head coach Spencer Carbery. \u201cAnd even with our game, as much as we were trying to keep it focused on playing well and getting two points, it creeps in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is Ovi\u2019s last home game, you want to give him the right tribute,\u201d noted Dylan Strome. \u201cBut at the same time, we\u2019re still fighting for a playoff spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ovechkin is undoubtedly the greatest player ever to don a Capitals jersey. Tasked with saving a franchise and revitalizing the league after the 2004-05 lockout, Ovechkin has spent the last two decades putting on a show, breaking Wayne Gretzky\u2019s seemingly unbeatable goals record, and bringing Washington its first Stanley Cup championship.<\/p>\n
Sidney Crosby, perhaps one of the only people who can understand the weight of the eyes on Ovechkin, has nothing but respect for his biggest rival. It was Crosby who proposed the rejected handshake line, and the pair exchanged signed jerseys and sticks after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had a huge impact on and off the ice,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cHe came in with such high expectations, and I think he matched them, if not more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, how do you live up to those expectations? But to be the greatest goal scorer of all time and to do what he\u2019s done, as consistent as he\u2019s been, (is) pretty impressive. Definitely honored that I\u2019ve had the opportunity to play with him all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carbery said he\u2019s found time to be nostalgic in quiet moments, grinning as he expressed gratitude for his place in Ovechkin\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI usually [reflect] early in the morning when no one\u2019s around,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cI look up at the board, and I see O there, and I\u2019ll just have five minutes to myself, of thinking about different moments that him and I have had.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if it is the end of his career \u2013 I smile, usually, in those moments because I\u2019ve been blessed to be the guy that gets to be his head coach when he broke the all-time goals record. And I get to be the head coach that was with him at the end. And I don\u2019t take that for granted one bit. That\u2019s a special thing that I will have for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along the way, Ovechkin earned the love of a city. For the goals he scored, sure, but also for the flash he scored them with, the childlike glee he takes every time rubber hits twine. Washington loves him for the inevitability he has had on the ice, a seemingly unstoppable threat in his prime, as much as they adore him for his larger-than-life persona and his insistence on eating chicken parmesan before games.<\/p>\n
From the chaos of the Young Guns era to the role of elder statesman he\u2019s taken on in recent years, Ovechkin\u2019s hands built a hockey town, one goal at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he\u2019s done for this city, you can\u2019t really put into words,\u201d said Wilson, Ovechkin\u2019s longest-tenured teammate. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s literally changed the game. He\u2019s changed the game of hockey. He\u2019s changed everything in this city from that. What he\u2019s done, it may not ever be done again for a franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was so important to the league and so important to the game of hockey, so important to the city\u2026I think there\u2019s hundreds of thousands of kids that have played the game because of him and look up to him every day. He\u2019s worn all that and just done it with class, and the amount of pressure he\u2019s been through, and just continues to exceed expectations and be a legend of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game, whether or not it marks the end of Ovechkin\u2019s time in Washington, gave fans a chance to thank him for the two decades he\u2019s spent on Capitals ice. The applause for Ovechkin at the starting lineup, always raucous, turned into a minute-long standing ovation. Fans cheered for him after every hit, every shot, nearly every time he touched the puck, and even once when he was on the bench.<\/p>\n
Even Ovechkin\u2019s teammates couldn\u2019t keep their focus solely on the game, moved by the recognition of his legendary career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d Logan Thompson said of watching the standing ovation. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to get a little emotional, just seeing what he\u2019s done. So it\u2019s unbelievable. It\u2019s cool to be his teammate. That\u2019s a moment that I\u2019ll cherish forever, just on that ice tonight with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ovechkin saluted the fans back when he was named First Star of the Game, applauding the crowd as he skated across the rink he\u2019s come to call home.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys, you support us through all my career,\u201d Ovechkin told the stands<\/a> during a bench interview with Monumental Sports Network\u2019s Tarik El-Bashir. \u201cObviously, last night we have a big win in Pittsburgh, and tonight we need your energy, and we have it. So thank you very much for your support.\u201d<\/p>\nOvechkin may well come back for another season. If all goes well, he may even come back next week, facing the Penguins once again in a first-round playoff series. But if this is the end, if this proves the last page in a storied career, Ovechkin will have left his mark on the people of Washington, and they\u2019ll have marked him in turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans always support me, support the organization, team, boys,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cOf course, they love me, but I think they love the boys. They love how we play, because we play for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 The cheers began before the puck had even dropped. With Alex Ovechkin waiting until the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-551569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-capitals","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-capitals","13":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116395809381129007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551569","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=551569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}