ARLINGTON, Va. – Alex Ovechkin took advantage of the Washington Capitals’ break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 to relax with his family and friends on vacation in Dubai and take a physical and mental respite from hockey.
“You have to enjoy your time, spend time with the family,” the Capitals captain told NHL.com on Thursday. “Don’t think about hockey.”
So, no, Ovechkin didn’t come back to Washington with a decision on his future beyond this season. Ovechkin, the NHL record holder with 919 regular-season goals, is in the final season of the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in 2021, leading to much speculation about whether this will also be his last season in the NHL.
“No, I don’t know yet,” Ovechkin said. “We have to make a decision. We have to talk with the family, with (Capitals owner) Ted (Leonsis), [general manager Chris Patrick], and then we'll see.”
Ovechkin said that decision “probably” won’t be made until after the season. The 40-year-old’s focus is on the Capitals’ final 23 games of the regular season, beginning against the Philadelphia Flyers at Capital One Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, NBCSP), and helping them qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Ovechkin knows it won’t be easy. Washington (29-23-7) trails the Boston Bruins by four points for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference and is also four points behind the New York Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division.
“We’re going to have to win almost every game to make the playoffs,” Ovechkin said.
The Capitals picked up their play before the break, winning four of their final five games. But that surge followed a 24-game stretch when they went 7-13-4 to fall from first in the Metropolitan Division to outside the playoff picture, leaving them with a slim margin of error for the remainder of the season.
“We were in that position that we can’t lose the games,” Ovechkin said. “You can see how we played against Nashville (4-2 win on Feb. 5) and how we played against the Islanders (4-1 win on Feb. 2), everybody was dialed in. Of course, sometimes you get that fatigue that you’re kind of tired, tired about games, and you just want to get closer to the break and [rest].
“But you can see all the guys put everything that they can to get the points and we're still in a battle.”
Ovechkin says his season individually has been similar to the Capitals play as a team, with “ups and downs.”
When Ovechkin scored 44 goals in 65 games last season despite missing 16 games with a fractured left fibula, he was remarkably consistent and did not go more than three games without scoring a goal. The highlight moment was Ovechkin scoring his 895th goal on April 6 against the New York Islanders to surpass Wayne Gretzky (894) for the most in League history. But the Capitals also thrived as a team, finishing first in the Eastern Conference with 111 points (51-22-9).
Like the Capitals, Ovechkin has been more streaky this season.
Although he is second on the Capitals with 22 goals and 48 points in 59 games (one behind Tom Wilson for the team lead in each), he didn’t score a goal in his final five games before the break. Ovechkin has just two goals in his past 13 games following a four-game stretch when he scored five goals, which was preceded by a 14-game stretch when he scored only one goal.
“It's how I said, we have ups and downs,” he said. “It's not about me. You can see everybody was maybe a little struggling because last year, we scored like five, six goals in a game and it was easy. Right now, it's a kind of a struggling to find a way to find the net and I hope this break is going to help us, and now we're going to play much better.”
