Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena, a sellout crowd witnessed the confluence of a must-win game for the Capitals along with the possibility of also seeing the final home game in the illustrious 21-season NHL career of Caps captain Alex Ovechkin. Behind a sparkling 24-save performance from Logan Thompson in the Washington nets, the Caps took care of the must-win aspect of the afternoon, taking a 3-0 victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
On a brilliant spring day in the District, a raucous and reverent sellout crowd jammed into the big barn on F St., on the chance that this might be the last of the 784 regular season games Ovechkin has played in this building. And from the start of warmups, it was apparent this was no ordinary regular season contest.
Ovechkin posed for photos with Pens captain Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh veterans Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang before the start of warmups; the game was also the 100th meeting between Ovechkin and Crosby since they debuted on the same night – Oct. 5, 2005 – in the NHL. Throughout the afternoon, patrons and media members alike could be seen with phones out, shooting short videos or taking pictures to preserve what might be the last vestiges of a glorious era of hockey in DC.
“You could tell the day felt different and the night felt different,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And even with our game, as much as we were trying to keep it focused on playing well, it creeps in and you can feel a little bit of anxiousness inside of our group, and you notice little things inside of our play; you could feel the tenseness of our game, especially in the first period. I thought it got better in the second and we sort of hung on in the third.
“But a lot of great moments tonight. The acknowledgement of Sid and O, the opening draw; I got a kick out of that, of him taking that face-off to start the game against Sid. And I just caught myself watching O in certain moments, more so not when the game is going on, but in TV timeouts and just taking it all in.
“And the crowd tonight, our fans were amazing and you just felt from the start that gave me chills. Before the game’s even started, before the anthem, the appreciation that’s shown for him and how much the whole community just loves him, and our fan base just loves him. That was a cool night.”
When Ovechkin was introduced before the game as one of Washington’s starters, the ovation was long and lasting, and virtually everyone was on their feet. Caps center Dylan Strome yielded the dot to Ovechkin for the opening draw against Crosby, allowing one more grand photo opportunity of the two primary faces and personalities of the NHL across the last two decades.
“I was surprised,” says Ovechkin. “Obviously, I’m not a face-off guy, but I was trying out there to win it.”
And once the puck dropped, loud choruses of “Ovi, Ovi!” rang out, as did occasional chants of “One more year!” imploring the captain to return for one more campaign in the fall.
“How I said on the bench, the fans always support me, support our organization, the team, the boys,” says Ovechkin. “It was loud, it was the energy – what we need – and you could see how the boys played.”
As for the “one more year” chants, Ovechkin said only, “I will think about it.”
There were no offensive pyrotechnics from Ovechkin in this must-win game, but he made his presence felt with three first-period hits and one in each of the final two frames, a diving clear of the defensive zone in the third period, and finally, a primary assist on Connor McMichael’s empty-net goal that sealed the victory for the Caps, a victory that allows them to wake up on Monday morning with their faint playoff hopes still flickering.
During a scoreless first period in which the Caps had an apparent Justin Sourdif power-play goal nullified because they were offside on the play, Thompson stood tall, keeping the Pens off the board with a number of key stops, starting with denials of Tommy Novak, Malkin and Rickard Rakell in the game’s early minutes.
Just after the midpoint of the middle period, another Capital who much more quietly could have also been playing his final home game in a Washington sweater at Capital One Arena, finally snapped the scoreless stalemate.
From the top of the paint, Pierre-Luc Dubois tried to force a shot through, only to have it blocked by Pens defenseman Parker Wotherspoon. Dubois managed to get the puck over to the left post where blueliner Trevor van Riemsdyk was stationed, and the veteran defenseman took a trio of hacks at the loose puck, the third of which resulted in the puck getting under the pad of Pens goaltender Stuart Skinner and over the goal line – if not to the back of the net – at 12:22.
Like Ovechkin, van Riemsdyk is in the final season of a contract extension with Washington, and his future is uncertain after the June 30 expiration of his current deal.
Washington’s penalty killing outfit helped Thompson preserve that narrowest of leads, with Tom Wilson notably eating a big point blast from Erik Karlsson.
At the other end of the ice, Skinner denied Timothy Liljegren’s late period bid for an insurance marker off the rush, then thwarted Ovechkin on a pocket shot on the ensuing face-off.
The Caps had a few odd man opportunities in the game that mostly didn’t end in shots or shot attempts, and Pittsburgh began to put on a concerted push in the back half of the third period.
When the Caps were guilty of icing the puck with 4:32 left in the third, the Pens brought out the Crosby line for the offensive zone draw while the five Washington skaters were on fumes; each had been on the ice for well over a minute by that time. Pittsburgh won the draw, only to see the puck squirt out of the zone and the weary Caps were able to make a change.
Seconds later, McMichael grabbed a missed shot off the back wall and broke it out on a 2-on-1 rush with Ryan Leonard on his right, and with Pens forward Egor Chinakhov as the lone defender back; it was Chinakhov whose shot missed the net wide from center point.
McMichael fed Leonard, then galloped ahead and into Pittsburgh ice before taking a return feed and tucking it through Skinner’s five-hole for a 2-0 Washington lead at 15:50, just 22 seconds after the Caps lost that perilous draw in their own end.
“The puck just squirted to me in our own slot,” recounts McMichael. “And I looked up and me and Leno had an opportunity at a full ice 2-on-1, and I just tried to get up there with him. And [Chinakhov] stepped and he made a really good pass to me, and I just thought had so much speed that [Skinner] was going to be backed up a little bit, and I was able to find the five-hole.”
The crowd erupted loudly, in a mixture of joy and relief.
Just over a minute later, Ovechkin wisely opted not to try an empty net bid of his own from inside the Washington zone, threading a feed instead to McMichael who blazed in, unfazed by a stick slung by Pens winger Bryan Rust, sealing the deal and Thompson’s fourth shutout of the season and his second in his last three starts.
“I think the best word to use for it is just ‘fun,’” says Thompson. “Those are games that you want to play in. And obviously, yes, a little more emotional with Ovi and not knowing the future, but it was awesome to see how loud the crowd was for him and how much the city of DC really loves him.”
“He’s had a big impact on [the game] on and off the ice,” says Crosby of his longtime rival. “He came in with such high expectations, and I think he matched them, if not more. I mean, how do you live up to those kind of expectations? But to be the greatest goal scorer of all-time and to do what he’s done, and as consistent as he’s been, it’s pretty impressive. I’m definitely honored that I’ve had the opportunity to play with him all these years.”
If you’re hoping for a sign that Ovechkin might return for a 22nd season in the fall, it came after the final horn. Crosby marshaled his teammates together for a postgame handshake line, the likes of which Ovechkin himself did for now-retired players like Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Martin last season, and which he did early this season for soon-to-be retired Los Angeles captain and legend Anze Kopitar.
But Ovechkin was having none of it. He vehemently waved off Crosby, who eventually gave up and headed to the room.
“Because I [didn’t] decide yet and I don’t know. Thanks for them to wait out there, but I’m going to see Sid right now – after the interview – and Geno, and we’ll talk.”
