{"id":257847,"date":"2025-10-29T02:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/257847\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T02:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:57:07","slug":"alex-ovechkin-says-he-still-has-love-and-passion-for-the-game-doesnt-know-when-hell-retire-you-have-to-enjoy-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/257847\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin says he still has love and passion for the game, doesn\u2019t know when he\u2019ll retire: \u2018You have to enjoy the moment\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ovechkin recently spoke to ESPN\u2019s Emily Kaplan about reaching his latest milestone \u2014 becoming the 24th player in NHL history to suit up in 1,500 games<\/a> \u2014 and his thoughts about when he might retire.<\/p>\n

While his answers were brief, Ovechkin admitted that his health will be the most significant factor in his decision-making, as he doesn\u2019t want to push his body past the point of no return.<\/p>\n

Kaplan conducted the interview ahead of the Washington Capitals\u2019 nationally televised game against the Dallas Stars on ESPN, Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Transcript<\/p>\n

Emily Kaplan: \u201cWhen you started, did you ever think 1,500 was possible?<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin: No, no. Not a chance.<\/p>\n

Emily Kaplan: What was your goal then?<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin: One game.<\/p>\n

Emily Kaplan: Only seven other guys have done it just with one team. What did it take to get there?<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin: Everything. I think it\u2019s luck, health-wise, trust from your coaches, from your ownership. It\u2019s a tremendous honor. Lucky enough to play so many years in one team. Health-wise, you know, like, I wish everybody can make that numbers.<\/p>\n

Emily Kaplan: You\u2019re literally the greatest goal scorer of all time. What still motivates you at this point?<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin: I still love game. I still have passion. You just enjoy it because you never know when you\u2019re going to get hurt or when you\u2019re going to be retired.<\/p>\n

Emily Kaplan: And you\u2019re in the last year of your contract. A lot of people want to know how long you\u2019ll keep playing. When will you know when it\u2019s time to hang them up?<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin: Most important thing is health. I don\u2019t want to play hockey and then, like, when I\u2019m retired, like, I don\u2019t want\u2013 like, I can play soccer with my kids or I can skate with them. Right now, I\u2019m just\u2013 I want to take as much energy from a crowd. You have to enjoy the moment.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\u2019s interview with Kaplan follows what he\u2019s said in past chats about his future. At Capitals training camp in September, Ovechkin told the media<\/a> that he had yet to make a decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you know? I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be last. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about possible contract extension talks this season, Ovechkin replied, \u201cNo, not [thinking about another contract] yet. So, we\u2019ll see what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Capitals players have tried to avoid thinking about the possibility of an Ovechkin-less Capitals team<\/a>, general manager Chris Patrick has taken an approach where he\u2019s leaving everything up to the team\u2019s legendary player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want him to have the space to have this season go how he wants it to go,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cAnd, you know, if he wants to talk, we\u2019ll talk. If not, we\u2019ll figure it out later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just at a point where every time I see him play, I\u2019m just appreciating it because he\u2019s 40 years old. We\u2019re not going to have this forever. To get to witness that every night is a treat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin recently spoke to ESPN\u2019s Emily Kaplan about reaching his latest milestone \u2014 becoming the 24th player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-257847","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\/257847","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=257847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}