{"id":924929,"date":"2026-10-08T05:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/924929\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T05:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:48:09","slug":"ovechkin-begins-farewell-tour-with-memorable-final-home-opener-with-capitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/924929\/","title":{"rendered":"Ovechkin begins farewell tour with ‘memorable’ final home opener with Capitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seemed fitting this game was against Crosby and the Penguins. Ovechkin, the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NHL Draft, and Crosby, the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft, each remain the headline attractions for their teams in their remarkable 22nd seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s consistency,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cWe respect each other, and you can see like he still do lots of great things out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this 101st NHL game between them, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs, was also an example of how times are changing. Neither Ovechkin nor Crosby had a point for only the 11th time in those 101 games and the first time since Feb. 23, 2021.<\/p>\n

Taking the lead role for Washington in this game was the line of Alex Tuch<\/a> (one goal), Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> (one goal, one assist) and Tom Wilson<\/a>\u00a0(one goal, two assists), which combined for six points (three goals, three assists) while playing head-to-head against Crosby\u2019s line for most of the game.<\/p>\n

Crosby was on the ice for the Capitals\u2019 first four goals, including Anthony Beauvillier<\/a>‘s\u00a023 seconds into the game, and had a minus-4 rating.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Dubie\u2019s line was so good tonight with Tuch and ‘Willie’ and just did such a good job of creating turnovers on the forecheck, putting their ‘D’ under pressure, holding onto pucks, had multiple long O-zone shifts,\u201d Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. \u201cAnd it was against 87 (Crosby), so anytime that you can do those types of things consistently and win that matchup, it’s a huge benefit for a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin appreciated this as much as anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cDubie\u2019s line, I thought, today was flying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seemed fitting this game was against Crosby and the Penguins. Ovechkin, the No. 1 pick in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-924929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}