{"id":800615,"date":"2026-08-03T06:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T06:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800615\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T06:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T06:02:09","slug":"dmitry-orlov-reflects-on-approaching-end-of-alex-ovechkin-sidney-crosby-era-it-will-be-sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800615\/","title":{"rendered":"Dmitry Orlov reflects on approaching end of Alex Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby era: \u2018It will be sad\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of participating in the Match of the Year, San Jose Sharks<\/a> defenseman Dmitry Orlov<\/a> celebrated his 35th birthday in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with Alex Ovechkin<\/a>, going on a boat ride and having dinner together.<\/p>\n

Orlov played the first 12 seasons of his career with the Washington Capitals<\/a> from 2011 to 2023, winning a Stanley Cup championship with the team and forming a friendship with the captain that remains strong to this day. The pair is so close, in fact, that Varvara Orlova, Dmitry\u2019s wife, is Sergei Ovechkin\u2019s godmother<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sport24.ru\u2019s Dmitry Erykalov<\/a> recently, Orlov admitted that while he has a direct line to Ovi, he had no advanced notice that the Capitals\u2019 great was returning for another year \u2014 his 22nd season in the NHL \u2014 just like Ovi\u2019s current teammates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know beforehand; he made the decision within the family,\u201d Orlov told the outlet<\/a>, per a translation by Google Translate. \u201cBut there was a sneaking feeling that he was more likely to stay than not. Sasha took a rest and saw that the team was getting stronger. The team owes him something after so many years of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a plus for everyone that he\u2019s still playing. His great story continues. It\u2019s a great story \u2013 playing his entire career for one team, winning the Stanley Cup, and breaking the greatest record ever. I\u2019m sure he still has the energy to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlov added that he didn\u2019t get any insider information either when San Jose played Washington at Capital One Arena in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, that didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Orlov said. \u201cWe flew in two days before the game, saw each other, had dinner together, and talked. He didn\u2019t look like he was saying goodbye to hockey. We\u2019ll see how it goes this year. Maybe he\u2019ll change his mind and stay another year!\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being gone from the Capitals\u2019 organization for three years, Orlov\u2019s heartstrings still get pulled when he returns to the area \u2014 though the experience is different because many of the players he once played with have moved on.<\/p>\n

\u201cGames against the Capitals are tough, especially in Washington,\u201d Orlov said. \u201cThat\u2019s 12 years of my American life. It\u2019s a warm time for me. At the same time, there aren\u2019t many guys left on the team who I played with. Sasha will leave, and only (Tom) Wilson will be left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought that (John) Carlson would move to Anaheim and then sign with Tampa. And when Ovechkin leaves, an entire era will be over. It will be cool to sit back and remember playing with such a great hockey player, against the equally great (Sidney) Crosby and (Evgeni) Malkin. When they leave, it will be sad that it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since entering the league together in 2005, Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby<\/a> have won a combined four Stanley Cups, 5 Hart Trophies as league MVP, and 11 Rocket Richard Trophies as the NHL\u2019s leading goal-scorer. The pair recently played their 100th game against each other, regular season and playoffs combined.<\/p>\n

In those rivalry games, Crosby holds a point advantage (127 to 104), while Ovechkin has more goals (53 to 48). Overall in their careers, Ovechkin has won more individual NHL trophies (19 to 12), but Crosby has more Stanley Cups (3 to 1) and career points (1,761 to 1,686).<\/p>\n

Orlov himself faced the Penguins 58 times during his Capitals career, including 18 games across three consecutive playoff years. After beating the Capitals in 2016 and 2017, the Penguins repeated as Stanley Cup champions in 2016 and 2017 while the Capitals captured their first championship in 2018 after going through the Penguins in the second round of that year\u2019s postseason.<\/p>\n

The Capitals kept largely the same roster heading into 2019, hoping to repeat as champions, but were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in a physical first-round series. The team began being broken up afterward as stars like Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov eventually departed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried. Apparently, not enough,\u201d Orlov said. \u201cBut there were other factors, too. COVID hit, Trotz left, and if we take 2019 as an example, we lost the first round to Carolina. It was a tough series. If we\u2019d gotten past them, we could have reached the Cup. Then everything changed dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlov, the Capitals\u2019 second-round pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, will be entering his 15th season in the NHL, and sitting directly in front of him is a huge milestone: he\u2019s 51 games away from 1,000 in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice number, and it\u2019s just around the corner,\u201d Orlov said. \u201cBut reaching it won\u2019t be the end of hockey for me. I want to sign a new contract. I want to prepare well for the season and help the team improve compared to last season. For now, those are just my thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of participating in the Match of the Year, San Jose Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov celebrated his 35th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-800615","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\/800615","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=800615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}