Still, after passing Wayne Gretzky last season, Ovechkin will carry that moniker – “the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring leader” – with him for the rest of his career, however long that lasts, and beyond unless or until someone else comes along to knock him from that perch.
Most thought Gretzky’s total of 894 goals was unreachable until Ovechkin overtook him by scoring his 895th on April 6 against the New York Islanders. So, maybe someday Ovechkin’s career total, which remained 897 after he failed to score on three shots against Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman on Wednesday, will be surpassed, too.
He’ll undoubtedly add to that number this season, with his sights set first on becoming the first player to reach 900 goals. The 40-year-old left wing is in the final season of a five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in 2021, though, and he has yet to decide if he wants to come back for a 22nd season with Washington.
So, perhaps, the 81 games Ovechkin and the Capitals have left this season will be his last chances to set the goal-scoring bar for those to follow who will try to eclipse it. And no one knows yet if this was the last time he’ll be the last Capitals player to take the ice on opening night.
“It’s so cool,” Capitals forward Tom Wilson said. “The crowd starts chanting, ‘Ovi!’ and those are the moments you just try and take in. You get the shivers and stuff. You stand there and you just try and take it in and remember it forever because you can’t take those moments for granted.”
For now, Ovechkin is focused on enjoying this season and trying to help the Capitals win. He had trouble finding his game Wednesday, mishandling the puck a few times when you’d expect him to quickly unleash his lethal shot.
That was somewhat understandable after he missed about a week of training camp because of a lower-body injury before returning to play in Washington’s final two preseason games.
“Rusty with the puck. That’s what I saw,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “He had some good opportunities, some good looks, but some situations that you know he would like to do more with. But it will take some time, and he’ll get back into it.”
The NHL record holder with 326 power-play goals, Ovechkin usually finds a way to make a difference on the man-advantage. He didn’t have a shot on goal, though, during Washington’s five unsuccessful power plays, including a 5-on-3 for 55 seconds early in the second period when the score was still 0-0.
One notable change was Ovechkin didn’t play on both units for three of the Capitals’ five power plays. That’s something that rarely happened during Ovechkin’s first 20 seasons, but Carbery wants to budget his ice time a little more this season in concession to his age.
“Those are times where, look, I’ve got to help him,” Carbery said. “It’s not quantity. It’s quality with ‘O’ now at this point in his career. It’s my job to find him that quality, so I’ve got to make sure that his minutes are where they need to be and we’re utilizing him in the spots to use his strengths and what he does at an elite level at this point in his career.”
Ovechkin still played 18:16, including 6:22 of the Capitals’ 9:06 of power-play time. He believes more repetitions will help him and the Capitals find their rhythm.
“The first couple of games it’s always going to be different,” Ovechkin said. “It’s going to be different pace, it’s going to be different atmosphere and maybe you’re going to hold the stick too tight. But it’s the first game for both teams and you could see there was lots of bounces, lots of kind of miscommunications.
“It [stinks], so we’re going to move on.”
