Last night the Washington Capitals were eliminated from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and it seems like the perfect time to finish this article I began working on when Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky to become the greatest goal scorer in NHL history.
To understand the importance of Alexander Ovechkin, all you need to do is look back at how I became a Washington Capitals in the first place. Growing up in suburban DC in the 80s the first live sporting events I ever attended were Georgetown Hoyas basketball games. My dad was an alum and raised me on players like Dikembe Mutumbo, Alonso Mourning and eventually Allen Iverson. But outside of the Hoyas, my dad would take my brother and I to Capitals games.
I don’t think my dad had ever watched a hockey game before he brought me to my first Caps game, but he got free Caps tickets from his work all the time. The company he worked for had season tickets to all the local sports teams so they could take clients, but no one ever wanted to go to a Caps game so they were often available for the taking. The Caps were relatively new to the city, an expansion team in the mid 70s, and DC was just not a hockey town despite being a pretty good team with stars like Rod Langway, Mike Gartner and Scott Stevens. They played at this dump in Landover, MD called the Capital Center, most famous for being the parking lot in the cult film Heavy Metal Parking Lot. The Cap Center was just a little too far from the city and was eventually demolished after the Caps and the Bullets moved to the MCI Center in DC proper.
In the 90s the Capitals were still good with stars like Peter Bondra, Ollie “the Goalie” Kolzig and ever so briefly, the all time NHL leader in mullets, Jaromir Jagr. Unfortunately the team could never get over the hump and for the most part the city could not care less about the Caps. I would buy student tickets for like $10 and then just walk down to the lower level to watch the games up close even after Capitals even made it to the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, in the same arena, Michael Jordan joined the newly renamed Wizards and they were selling out games every night. (I actually got to see his last home game ever.)
I moved away from DC in 2002 but it wasn’t until the Capitals traded my favorite player, Peter Bondra, a couple years later that I really stopped paying attention to the team. The Caps made the decision to gut their entire roster and trade everyone for draft picks. Between my anger with the Caps and the NHL lockout in 2005 I was completely checked out.Other than reading an article or two in the Washington Post, I barely paid attention when the Caps selected Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin in the 2004 NHL Draft.
Because of the lockout, Ovechkin didn’t play his first game until the 2005-2006 season and he almost immediately set the league on fire. He scored two goals in his first never game and never looked back. Not only was he scoring, but he was doing it with so much flair, something completely missing from the boring, Canadian, old school hockey culture of the time. He was so big, and so fast and could do anything with the puck. You never knew if he was going to go around you or through you. He was the most fun player in hockey… and I had no idea.
In 2005 I graduated college and a year later I moved to Brooklyn. Ovechkin and his Pittsburgh rival, Sidney Crosby, were literally saving the NHL and I was too busy to notice. I just wasn’t paying much attention to hockey until something happened. In the 2007-2008 NHL season the Caps were very bad. Their head coach was quickly fired and replaced with this adorable chubby bald man who cursed like his life depended on it. Bruce Boudreau took over and installed a new system that focused fully on offense. By the time his system started working the Caps were so far out of a playoff spot that no one gave them a chance. But the Caps started winning, and winning and winning and went on the most improbable end of season run to make the playoffs. Ovechkin had one of his best all time seasons scoring 65 goals and leading the league in both points and goals. I was fully back on board. This was fun.
At the end of 2008 I got laid off my last job before I became a full time photographer. My new life working from home just happened to correspond with the NHL’s first digital streaming package. I would be out taking photos late night, but before I would go out I would turn on the Caps game and edit photos. I went from being a casual fan in the 80s and 90s, to giving up on the team in the mid 2000s, to watching 60+ Caps games a year. Ovechkin had converted me like he did so many people….
That improbable 2007-2008 season also happened to be when the Caps returned to their classic red white and blue colors after years of a strange mix of blue, gold and black. The team chose to wear red at home, and so did the fans. Sold out crowds packed the newly renamed Verizon Center and created a boisterous sea of red. The “Rock The Red” era had begun. DC was becoming a hockey town.
In the two decades Ovechkin has been in DC, the Capitals have only missed the playoffs a handful of times. The number of rinks in the DC area has exploded. Youth hockey teams are everywhere. Programs exist to get inner-city kids involved in skating. Everywhere you go you see people wearing Caps gear in a way I never saw when I was growing up there.
In 2018 the Capitals finally won the Stanley Cup for the first time in their history and the entire city celebrated with them. Fans and the team dove into fountains in Georgetown, the Caps did Cup Stands at local bars, the team got hammered at aWashington Nationals game and the championship parade brought tens of thousands to the Washington Mall. That whole week was one of the best moments of my life. Partying with Caps fans, so relived to finally see this team win, hugging strangers and singing at the tops of our lungs. Bringing me to one final point about Ovechkin: His personality has had a very fun impact on our fanbase.
Ovechkin is a very weird guy and I mean that in the best possible way. He is upbeat and hilarious and that combined with his often broken English has led to so many quotes and moments that I couldn’t begin to breakdown in this article. When asked about an injury that would have left most people out for weeks, Ovi responded ‘Russian Machine Never Break”. Shortly after that the blog RMNB was born, documenting the Caps and the players, not just on the ice, but off it. The site has plenty of good hockey insight but it is often hilarious and gives you a look at how fucking weird our team is, led by the biggest weirdo of them all. The combination of this unique player, and the unique coverage from RMNB has, over decades, impacted the fan base. Weirdos gravitate towards this team and it’s so much fun. My NYC Caps Crew folks have become some of my closest friends and we have a collection of inexplicable chants and merch that brings me so much joy. This fanbase is so much fun, and it’s all Ovi’s fault.
Lastly, I can’t write an article this long about Ovechkin without mentioning his relationship with Vladimir Putin. I can’t fault him for patriotic. He loves his country and has been a fixture of the Russian national team for decades. This had never been a huge problem until Russia invaded Ukraine and Ovehckin didn’t speak out against the war, other than to say he was “for Peace”. He has not done anything actively pro-Putin since the war started, but he also has done nothing to distance himself from him either. It’s of course disappointing, but I also understand it. Ovechkin has family in Russia and wants to move back when he retires. If he were to speak out against the war he would risk his family and his future. I don’t know what his actual politics are, but I have never heard a single bad word about the guy from his teammates, coaches or fans who meet him. I love the guy and I am willing to give him a pass.
On April 6th, 2025 Alexander Ovechkin scored his 895th goal to pass Wayne Gretzky in front of dozens of members of the NYC Caps Crew on Long Island. It’s the first time since moving to North Carolina that I have truly missed New York. I had been looking towards this millstone for years and just watching him break it on TV left me emotional, I can’t imaging being there with my friends to see it in person.
Shortly after 895 I started working on this article, but it got so long I decided I needed to come back to it, but then I couldn’t find the perfect time to post it. Last night my new home team, the despised Carolina Hurricanes, beat the Capitals, ending their playoff run and as far as I am concerned, ending the hockey season. As bummed as I am today, I will always remember this season fondly because of Ovechkin’s goal record, and it seems like this post is the perfect way to end the season.
Ovechkin only has one more year on his contract and has said that next year could be his last. I hope it’s not, but if it is, I am just so glad I got to watch him do it all in a Capitals uniform. I got to spend 20 years rooting for the greatest goal scorer of all time, and the most enjoyable player to ever lace up a pair of skates. Thanks for everything Ovi.