“Washington” beat “Pittsburgh” in the NHL championship match and brightly marked the first home game of the new season. For Russian striker Alexander Ovechkin, who announced his retirement from the league at the end of the season the day before, a special ceremony was organized in the US capital.
America is preparing for life without Ovechkin
After two consecutive away matches in the back-to-back format, as a result of which the Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes (5:2) and lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning (1:3), the capital club celebrated the start of the new National Hockey League season on its site. The first home matches of the championship are always special events for each club, but this season for Washington, these and not only games take on much higher value - now the Capitals have begun the countdown to parting with Alexander Ovechkin.
The day before, the Russian striker and the best goalscorer in NHL history exploded an information bomb by making a statement about his retirement. At the end of the 2026-27 season, Ovechkin will leave North America and return to Russia, where he will make a decision about his future. Alexander Mikhailovich separately noted that it was important for him and his family to make a fateful statement before the team’s first home match of the new season, and the Caps players were the first to hear about it from his lips at a team meeting in the locker room.
In connection with this event, there is a real boom in the NHL: tickets for Ovechkin’s last matches in each of the cities where league clubs play have increased in price several times. It will be a real luxury to get to Washington’s last home game of this regular season. But seeing the last steps of the legendary hockey player in the league, where he played 22 historic seasons, will obviously be much more important than all the monetary expenses.
© REUTERS / Geoff BurkeAlexander Ovechkin
© REUTERS/Geoff Burke
Alexander Ovechkin
Great respect from bitter rivals
In the last home match of the championship, Washington will play against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Capitals closed the home part of the season against their principal rival last spring: then no one knew whether Ovechkin would remain in the NHL for the 2026/27 season or not, but Alexander Mikhailovich himself gave reason to think that he would stay in the league for one year, refusing the symbolic ceremony of shaking hands with the Pittsburgh players, who lined up after the match to express gratitude to the famous Russian.
“Will I agree to a handshake ceremony if my opponents propose after the matches? I can’t say anything now, I don’t even know myself,” Ovechkin answered a question from a RIA Novosti correspondent in August.
© AP Photo / Nick WassAlexander Ovechkin
© AP Photo/Nick Wass
Alexander Ovechkin
Now everyone knows that Alexander Mikhailovich will not avoid such ceremonies. They will come later, but it was against Pittsburgh that Washington played its first home match of the new season. This meeting would have been special already, but Ovechkin gave it a new palette of colors with his recent statement.
Before the game, many words were addressed to Alexander Mikhailovich, expressing respect and gratitude for his career. The Pittsburgh players, after a morning training session on the same day Ovechkin announced his retirement from the NHL, did not skimp on their “respects” - even Evgeni Malkin made an exception and talked to reporters, which he usually does not do after training. The Penguins press service, despite the principled rivalry with Washington and personally with Ovechkin, in anticipation of today's face-to-face meeting, prepared a large material in which the club expressed admiration for the legendary career path of the Russian:
"This is a significant event, given Ovechkin's place in hockey history as the greatest goal scorer and his history with Pittsburgh. When it comes to his rivalry with Sidney Crosby, no one has done more on and off the ice than Ovi and Sid over the past two-plus decades. It's also impossible to forget Ovechkin diving into the fountain during Washington's 2018 championship parade, as he prefers. chicken parmesan snack, sandwiches and chips before away games. Everything this old-school forward has done has worked virtually flawlessly for him over the years. Unlike last season, when Ovechkin was constantly questioned about his career, his future is now set - and we can all enjoy every second of these finals."
© AP Photo / Nick WassAlexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin
© AP Photo/Nick Wass
Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin
Duel with a Canadian
As always, special attention was focused on the confrontation between Ovechkin and Crosby. Ovi and Sid made their NHL debuts on the same day - October 5, 2005. Since then, they have invariably butted heads, as they do, for example, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. This NHL season has become the 22nd in a row in which the Russian and the Canadian compete with each other. There is simply no more legendary rivalry in the NHL. Until today, Ovechkin and Crosby had 75 head-to-head meetings in the regular season: the Washington captain scored 71 points (38 goals and 33 assists) in these games, the Pittsburgh leader scored 97 points (35+62), and in total the Russian and Canadian scored 3,451 points and scored 1,583 goals during their entire careers in the NHL championships.
Before Ovechkin and Crosby made their NHL debuts 21 years ago, the league was going through its worst period in history: a big lockout, a collapse of the league, no prospects. But the NHL got out of this hole, and Ovi and Sid made a huge contribution to this. They and their opposition literally saved the league.
"Ovechkin and Crosby are incredible. They played a big role in what happened in the league. Because of their phenomenal rivalry, there was a big increase in popularity in the league. And it was all sincere. It was not artificially created. It was a competition between two franchises and two players. Their rivalry saved the NHL. And they understand it," Washington's president of hockey operations Brian McLellan was quoted as saying by the Caps press service.
"I completely agree with that. What the league did back then was really painful, but now, looking back, you understand how much it was necessary. And what a blessing that Ovechkin and Crosby then began their long careers. Add Malkin to that. They all provided the league with marketing opportunities. The fact that they were in the league at that difficult moment was a fantastic stroke of luck for the NHL. And they were wise enough to take advantage of it. They helped put the league on the path that It’s still going strong today, definitely for the better,” added Washington general manager Chris Patrick.
© AP Photo / Gene J. Puskar Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby
© AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby
A special moment for Ovechkin
Explaining his decision to end his NHL career, Ovechkin noted his desire to spend more time with his children. Back in the summer, Alexander’s mother, the famous Olympic champion Tatyana Nikolaevna Ovechkina, told RIA Novosti that Ovi’s sons Sergei and Ilya, who also play hockey, are worried because their training process does not coincide with the training of their peers in Moscow.
© REUTERS / Geoff BurkeAlexander Ovechkin
© REUTERS/Geoff Burke
Alexander Ovechkin
“Washington”, opening the home part of the season, acted unusually: during the traditional exit of the Capitals players before the start of the first home match of the season, the names of all the team’s hockey players were announced by the announcer at Capital One Arena, and the first and last names of Alexander Ovechkin were announced by his sons.
“Your captain, number eight. Alexander Ovechkin,” they said in unison, after which the entire arena “exploded” with applause and slogans in honor of the Russian.
The teams took the status of the match seriously and put on a real show on the ice. Already in the 23rd second of the match, the score on the scoreboard changed. During the starting shift, Ovechkin put pressure on ex-Washington defender Trevor van Riemsdyk and forced him to make a mistake with a pass in the middle zone, after which Dylan Strome, who played the interception, in one move brought Anthony Beauvillier one on one with the Latvian goalkeeper of Pittsburgh Artur Shilova. Within a moment, the Caps and Ovechkin began celebrating the goal.
© AP Photo / Nick WassAlexander Ovechkin
© AP Photo/Nick Wass
Alexander Ovechkin
The Pens bounced back immediately. Less than a minute later, the visitors entered the zone too easily, and Brian Rust almost ran in with the puck into Logan Thompson's net. However, even before the break, the hosts managed to take the lead again when Tom Wilson was the first to make a finishing move from the slot area after Shilov’s save.
In the second period, the teams continued their scoring feast. In the opening of the period, Shilov did not play the best on the puck, going behind the goal, after which Wilson, who picked up the projectile, promptly delivered it to the nickel - Pierre-Luc Dubois did not miss on the almost empty goal. In the second half of the period, the Caps increased their advantage, when the same Wilson and the capital's newcomer Alex Tuck successfully ran 2 on 0 and scattered the Pittsburgh goalkeeper. However, the guests soon managed to return to the game: before the break, the Pens, through the efforts of Tommy Novak and Nicholas Robertson, reduced the gap in the score from 1:4 to 3:4.
At the beginning of the final 20 minutes, the “penguins” expectedly increased their activity, intending to restore the status quo, but they overdid it and got in their own way. Van Riemsdyk, out of old memory, helped Washington, although he did not want it, and left Pittsburgh in the minority. Shortly before his return to the ice, the Caps finally scored in the 5-on-4 format - Ryan Leonard scored his second goal of the season. It is worth noting that Ovechkin was already on the bench at the time of the goal. In the new season, the 41-year-old striker no longer plays in both special teams for the majority of Washington, as was the case, for example, last season.
© AP Photo / Nick WassAlexander Ovechkin
© AP Photo/Nick Wass
Alexander Ovechkin
This practice has become normal in the Capitals' revamped playing model, as has Ovechkin's reduced overall playing time. Today, for example, during the entire third period, Alexander Mikhailovich spent only two shifts, both of which were in the majority - and Ovi himself earned the second powerplay when Blake Lizotte tripped him, but after a minute of 5-on-4 play, the Russian left the court. The Russian veteran never went on the ice again. The coaching staff did not throw Ovechkin into the fight even in the last two minutes of the match, when Pittsburgh played with an empty goal.
Nevertheless, Alexander Mikhailovich understands and accepts his new role in his last season in the NHL. And today he is unlikely to worry about the lack of effective actions, because his “Washington” won an important victory over its principal rival (5:3). In just over 14 minutes, Ovi scored two shots on target and one power move.
