{"id":211563,"date":"2025-10-09T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211563\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:18:07","slug":"ovechkin-pediatric-cancer-patient-walk-red-carpet-before-capitals-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211563\/","title":{"rendered":"Ovechkin, pediatric cancer patient walk red carpet before Capitals season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin<\/a> completed his chase of the NHL goals record last season, but the Washington Capitals captain\u2019s work on THE GR8 CHASE For Victory Over Cancer is far from over.<\/p>\n

With an assist from 4-year-old Sunny Thornton, Ovechkin relaunched THE GR8 CHASE, a collaboration by the 40-year-old left wing, the Capitals, Hockey Fights Cancer and The V Foundation for Cancer Research to raise awareness and funds for pediatric cancer research. Wearing a red dress with a silver tiara, Sunny, a pediatric cancer patient from Maryland undergoing treatment at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, accompanied Ovechkin on the \u201cRock the Red\u201d carpet when he arrived for the Capitals\u2019 3-1 season-opening loss to the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had so much fun,\u201d Sunny said after getting her photo taken at the end of the red carpet with Ovechkin and her parents, Katie and Patrick.<\/p>\n

Since THE GR8 CHASE\u2019s inception on March 5 to bring additional meaning to Ovechkin\u2019s pursuit of the NHL goals record, which he broke by scoring his 895th goal on April 6 against the New York Islanders, it has raised more than $165,000. Ovechkin has pledged to make a donation in dollars equal to his career goals total for each one he scores, beginning with his 885th against the New York Rangers on March 5, for the remainder of his career. Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Capitals, matches each of his contributions.<\/p>\n

After scoring 44 last season, Ovechkin begins the season with 897 career goals and needs three more to become the first player in NHL history to reach 900. Fans can support THE GR8 CHASE by donating $8 (for Ovechkin\u2019s jersey number), or any amount they wish, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cFor the organization, for myself, for people who have [cancer], this is an important thing, and I hope we\u2019re going to raise lots of money and we\u2019re going to help people who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin greeted Sunny, who was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia on March 18, at the Capitals\u2019 practice facility in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday morning and prepped her for her red-carpet experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, me and you, ah?\u201d Ovechkin told Sunny after handing her a gift bag. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be lots of people. It\u2019s going to be lots of cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunny nodded shyly when Ovechkin asked if she was excited to attend her first Capitals game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin completed his chase of the NHL goals record last season, but the Washington Capitals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-211563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}