Alex Ovechkin scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins after missing nearly two weeks following a violation of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols.
Ovechkin beat Tuukka Rask clean off the rush 28 seconds into OT in his first game since Jan. 19. The Washington Capitals captain had missed the past four games.
“It sucks, obviously,” Ovechkin told reporters earlier Saturday. “No one wants to be suspended. No one wants to put yourself in that position. It’s over. You learn from it and move on.”
The Capitals rallied in their captain’s absence, picking up seven of a possible eight points. They remain unbeaten in regulation at 6-0-3 and extended their franchise-best point streak to start a season to nine games.
Saturday’s game against the Bruins was an important one for Washington; it marked the first time former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara faced his old team after Boston let him walk in free agency.
Chara — who doesn’t wear a visor — took a puck to the face late in the first period but returned for the second, didn’t miss a shift and played almost 21 minutes.
Ovechkin had been sidelined since Jan. 19, the Capitals’ first road trip of the season. Goalie Ilya Samsonov tested positive for COVID-19, which forced the NHL to conduct contract tracing. It was determined that Ovechkin, forward Evgeny Kuznetsov, defenseman Dmitry Orlov and Samsonov were all in the same hotel room, which violates the NHL’s strict road trip rules for the 2021 season. The Capitals were fined $100,000 as a team.
Several players have told ESPN they believed the NHL came down hard on the Capitals because the league wanted to use them as an example.
“It was a shock at first,” veteran forward T.J. Oshie told ESPN earlier on Saturday. “Just speaking about Ovi, he doesn’t miss many games. There hasn’t been many games where No. 8 isn’t in the lineup. So that alone has been a pretty big difference, when one of the best players in the world, the best goal scorer I have ever seen and our captain on top of it, it’s tough. But to lose all four of them was quite a big surprise. Those are guys that you can’t replace. We kind of just had a next-man-up mentality, and little by little as a group we tried to work for each other and just play hard for each other.”
Ovechkin has missed only 35 games out of a possible 1,191 in his career — with only 17 due to injury.
Orlov was cleared off the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list but was not in the lineup on Saturday. Samsonov and Kuznetsov have yet to be cleared.
“It’s a situation where rules are rules,” Ovechkin said on Saturday. “You can see all the names there … if you make mistake, it can cost you couple of games.”
The 35-year-old has won seven of the past eight scoring titles, and in his media session displayed his signature blunt sense of humor.
“I had my bye week already,” Ovechkin joked. “I feel pretty rested and ready to go. Obviously, I don’t have lots of time to spend on the ice, but I did some workouts in my gym and did some running. Tried to do max of what I could do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
