he\u2019s enough of a regular at Subway to have it brought to his car and arrives at the team plane to find a six-pack of beer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s been himself every day since he came into the league, and whatever he\u2019s doing is working.\u201d said Tom Wilson. \u201cThere might be something to his lifestyle. They don\u2019t make him like him anymore, that\u2019s for sure. It\u2019s hard to tell you guys about it. It\u2019s one thing to talk about it. It\u2019s one thing to see it on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a ton of fun. He\u2019s a bigger than life guy, and he\u2019s got his ways. I\u2019m not going to be the one to rat him out on that. The guy\u2019s just a machine, and he won\u2019t change for anybody. What he\u2019s been able to do is truly incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few players have stayed in the league as long as Ovechkin has, and even fewer have done so for a single team. Ovechkin will become just the eighth player to play 1,500 games with one franchise, and that connection to the city lends even more meaning to his milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it means a lot when you play for one organization,\u201d said head coach Spencer Carbery. \u201cThere\u2019s that loyalty component and also, you\u2019ve done something at such a high level that the organization that you\u2019re a part of has wanted you for so long and never shied away from that. I always think of players that have played whatever sport it is, and they play their entire career in one jersey is pretty cool, so to do that 1,500 all in a Caps jersey is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
That decades-long tenure has left its mark on Washington, both inside and outside of the locker room. His rise to stardom has brought thousands of fans to the game, while his leadership has established a tight-knit culture among his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough to sum it up in one answer, but what he\u2019s done for this city, for this organization, you really can\u2019t put it into words, the impact that he\u2019s had and I think will be here forever,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s been an honor to share a sweater with him on a lot of those nights. Just truly impressive. I think (he\u2019s) a guy that as teammates, as friends, you\u2019re always impressed and always in awe of what he\u2019s able to accomplish, leads the way every night for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only has Ovechkin kept playing into his 40s, but he\u2019s been able to remain relevant as his career stretches into its third decade. Father Time has taken its toll, sure \u2014 Ovechkin\u2019s speed has taken a step back, his last 50-goal season came in 2021-22, and he\u2019s scored just once in the first seven games of the 2025-26 campaign. But even despite missing 17 games to injury last season, he still scored 44 goals, ranking third in the league behind players a decade his junior.<\/p>\n
Dylan Strome has spent much of the past four seasons with Ovechkin on his wing, and he\u2019s still amazed by what he sees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he plays, and the way he is able to continually do it on a nightly basis, is something that I think needs to be studied,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the way he can find a way to just create something out of nothing is incredible. And when things aren\u2019t going well in a game, he\u2019s the one to find a way to make a hit or create a great chance. So I think it\u2019s impressive to watch over this long, and I\u2019m really happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carbery noted that Ovechkin\u2019s style of play, in particular, is especially well-suited to a long career, relying on skills that tend not to diminish as much with age. While fast skaters slow down over time, Ovechkin\u2019s shot and his brain have both endured.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis shot and his ability to score, but also just to be such an intelligent offensive player and to find spots, he\u2019s always been effective. He hasn\u2019t relied on something that\u2019s deteriorated. What do I mean by that? A lot of guys rely on their skating, right? Elite skaters. Well in year 15 it starts to go (down). So now all of a sudden, for lack of a better term, their money maker starts to (decline).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere O, has his shot got any worse from year 1 to year 20? I mean there\u2019s a strong argument, no. He is still able to \u2014 is he finding space? What he does at a world-class level is find space, knows where the puck\u2019s going, great offensive instincts. Has that dropped off from year 1 to year 20? Not really to me. And so that\u2019s where you talk about longevity and his ability to survive and thrive at his age, that\u2019s a huge part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strome, when asked about Ovechkin\u2019s endurance, offered a simpler explanation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has more fun than Ovi,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has fun at the rink. He has fun on the plane. He has fun in the dressing room. He has fun on the ice and games. He has fun when he\u2019s on the bench, fun in the trainer\u2019s room. He\u2019s a guy that enjoys life, and people want to be around him. And when you have that and people want to be around you and you keep other people happy, you stick around places for a long time. I think there\u2019s no better example of that than Ovi. And I think there\u2019s a reason why he\u2019s played this long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ovechkin could make even more history when he takes the ice on Saturday. After scoring his first goal of the season on Friday against the Minnesota Wild, he now sits just two away away from 900, an unprecedented mark Strome hopes he can hit on his milestone night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s excited for it,\u201d Strome said of Saturday\u2019s game. \u201cAnd hopefully we can get two more \u2014 900 and 1,500 games will be a nice little (combination).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 Six months after breaking the NHL\u2019s all-time goals record, Alex Ovechkin is on the verge of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-247998","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\/247998","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=247998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}