As we count down these last eight games of the 2024-25 regular season – the 50th season of Capitals hockey – and as the Alex Ovechkin chase of Wayne Gretzky’s goal mark reaches peak velocity, we’re going to share a personal memory of these last 20 years with the Gr8 Eight every game day until season’s end.
Today’s installment takes us back to the late summer of 2005 when a 19-year-old Ovechkin arrived in Washington to sign his first NHL contract, meet his new teammates and begin his first training camp.
When Alex Ovechkin first arrived in Washington, DC in late August of 2005, Caps hockey was at a low point. Coming off a dismal .360 points percentage performance in 2003-04 – their worst since ’77-78 – the Caps roster had been swept nearly clean of talent by the time an almost 20-year-old Ovechkin arrived on the scene in late summer 2005.
The entire NHL was scrambling for players in what turned out to be a short offseason when the season-killing lockout was finally settled in mid-July of 2005. Washington essentially signed a couple unrestricted free agents a day during one frenzied chunk of August. Dipping into the lower reaches of free agency was necessary; of the 20 Caps who suited up for the 2003-04 season finale, only five were in the lineup for Ovechkin’s Oct. 5, 2005 NHL debut. And only 11 of those 20 opening night Caps in ’05-06 were carryovers from the season before the lockout.
Goaltender Olie Kolzig was the cornerstone returning piece; he was the de facto captain for a chunk of lengthy tenure in the District. Newly appointed captain and local hero Jeff Halpern, sturdy defenseman Brendan Witt and – perhaps most critically – center Dainius Zubrus and winger Brian Willsie were also returning, along with highly regarded up-and-comers like Steve Eminger, Shaone Morrisonn, Matt Pettinger and Brian Sutherby.
Including Ovechkin, 24 of the 40 players who suited up for Washington in his rookie season were pulling the Caps sweater on for the first time that season. Not unlike the current Caps season, there were a lot of new faces.
After playing for Dynamo Moscow in 2004-05, Ovechkin opted out of his contract with the team in early August of 2005 and prepared to come to Washington. But where would he stay? Easy answer: with then-Caps GM George McPhee and his family in their Bethesda, Md. Home.
Almost a year earlier, at the beginning of the lockout in October of 2004, McPhee made a trip to Russia to watch Ovechkin play. That visit ultimately laid the foundation for the relationship between the organization and the player and his family, and the visit affected McPhee profoundly.
“It was a really interesting experience,” McPhee told us shortly after his return. “In my years as an NHL executive I have probably gone over to Europe about 25 times and have been to several different countries on hockey business. I have had some enlightening cultural experiences, but you are always reminded of how little us North Americans know of the rest of the world.
“This trip may well be the highlight of all my trips over there.”
The reason for McPhee’s visit – hockey – didn’t turn out to be the highlight. After watching the game, McPhee met with Ovechkin’s parents.
“The Ovechkin family is just amazing,” McPhee continued. “They could not be more warm, sincere and generous.
“They insisted that we visit their country home, come for dinner and stay overnight. We had an early morning flight back the next day so that kept us from staying over. But they were also insistent on us staying there and not at hotels during future trips.
“When we arrived, they insisted we get out of our business clothes and into something comfortable, so they gave us Dynamo sweatsuits to wear. Then we took a sauna and went for a swim.
“We had dinner and Alex had some friends over, too. There were about 12 of us at the table. Mr. Ovechkin made a toast in Russian that lasted three or four minutes. He welcomed us as his guests and said he was honored to have us and that he hoped we would have a nice time.
“About 30 minutes later, Mrs. Ovechkin made a toast and expressed her happiness that we had come to visit.
“I thanked them personally but also on behalf of the Washington Capitals for having us in their home. I also told them that we felt extremely fortunate to have Alex as a member of our organization and assured them that [Capitals majority owner] Ted [Leonsis] will always look after their son.
“We dined for about three hours. We had caviar, cognac, some spicy Russian sauces. They got a kick out of watching me after I ate those. Mrs. Ovechkin made all the food, and the vegetables were right out of her garden.
“There was conversation all evening, and what is interesting is that you learn that you don’t need to speak the language to communicate with people. The sincerity in these people’s eyes and the warmth in their hearts wasn’t communicated with words.
“I felt as though I was with family. It was easy to relax in their home, and it was easy for us to feel comfortable there.”
Soon after Ovechkin’s arrival in DC, he signed his three-year entry level contract on Aug. 31, 2005, a pact that carried a salary cap hit of $984,200. That figure represented 2.52 percent of the salary cap ceiling in ’05-06, the first season of the cap’s existence.
Ovechkin was introduced to local media in a press conference at Capital One Arena – still known as MCI Center at the time. Following that press conference, I was able to chat with Ovechkin in a one-on-one situation for the first time, in the lobby of nearby Hotel Monaco.
Still a couple weeks shy of his 20th birthday, Ovechkin had an interpreter along with him. Within the first five minutes of our conversation, he dismissed the interpreter, saying he was fine conducting the interview on his own. He was open and engaging, ebullient, eager to experience everything and especially eager to get on the ice with his new teammates.
“I have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” he said. “I want to meet my new partners and my new teammates. I have waited for this moment for a long time.”
He was adjusting to life in the States, and he was also adjusting to the smaller North American ice surface.
“I feel comfortable,” said Ovechkin, when asked how his off-ice adjustment was progressing. “It’s not my home; my home is in Russia. But I’m trying to feel at home.”
Zubrus was a key figure in Ovechkin’s early days. The personable Lithuanian had been an 18-year-old NHL rookie himself; he played in 19 Stanley Cup playoff games as a rookie with Philadelphia in 1996-97.
“When he came here for training camp, he was supposed to [room with Alexander] Semin,” notes Zubrus, mentioning the Caps’ absentee sophomore winger, who stayed in Russia for military service that season. “But he asked me to talk to the coach about putting him with a Canadian or North American. He wants to learn. That’s the most important thing. I think he is rooming right now with Brian Willsie on the road and he’s learning a lot of stuff.”
Ovechkin didn’t have his own wheels as of yet, so Zubrus was his ride to the Caps’ Piney Orchard practice facility in Odenton, Md. In those days.
“I lived in Bethesda, not too far away, and I went by to pick him up for practice,” Zubrus recalls. “And I’ve told this story a few times, but he wanted to go to the hockey store; I think he wanted to pick up a visor and some tape or something like that. Or laces, some shit like that. I just said, “All right man, I think you’ve got to forget about that part. Just worry about being a good hockey player, and everything else will be taken care of for you.” But I would pick him up from George’s house, and we would go skate.”
Kolzig was able to meet Ovechkin prior to his arrival in DC for his first NHL training camp.
“I was playing for Germany in the World Cup, and we were playing an exhibition game against Russia in Cologne, and Ovi was part of that team,” said Kolzig. “He wasn’t playing that night, but I got to meet him before the game. I told him how excited we were in Washington to have him come in, and he didn’t really know much English at that point, but you could tell that he was a very engaging individual. He seemed to be happy to meet me, and he was excited to start his career in the NHL.”
Once training camp started and he first faced Ovechkin’s hard, heavy shot, Kolzig’s impression changed.
“I just said, ‘Oh my God, please don’t hit me in the wrong spot,’” says Kolzig. “That thing was so fast and so heavy. And to his credit, he laid off at times and I think he knew how powerful his shot was. But at the same time, I think he wanted to impress everybody, especially the starting goaltender on his team, and show that he was a special player with special gifts.”
Ovechkin showed all of that and then some throughout that first training camp with the Capitals, and his new teammates found it easy to gravitate to him.
“Personally with Ovi, I clicked with him right away,” says Eminger. “And most of the guys who were within my circle clicked with him right away, too. Most younger European guys coming over here for the first time tend to kind of keep to themselves or stick with their countrymen, which is normal. But Ovi was different. He wanted to learn English, he wanted to speak English, he wanted to be one of the guys and to go out with the guys, and he always brought that attitude to the rink, that laughing and happy attitude that everyone sees. He was different in that way from the get go, wanting to be North American right off the bat.”
“Starting in the ’03-04 season, we had heard lots and read a lot about this talent, and then he was – with him coming over a year later and with a late birthday – a 20-year-old rookie,” says Willsie. “I think our expectations were tempered. We didn’t really realize what we were going to get; we knew we were going to get a talent, but when he comes in and starts putting guys through the boards and scoring goals and generating that excitement, I think it got fast tracked a little bit.”
On Sept. 30, the Caps hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins in a preseason game at MCI Center. These days – and for the last decade or so at least – all Caps preseason games are televised. Back then, televised preseason games were a rarity. But that game – less than a week before his NHL debut – was televised locally, with Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin on the call, as always.
Ovechkin scored the first three goals in a 4-3 Washington win. Anyone watching that game could see something big was brewing in the District, but the Caps were still careful to temper expectations.
“He made some nice solo plays, but he also had a lot of help tonight and that’s what our team is all about,” said coach Glen Hanlon after that game. “Even on nights when Alex does score three goals, we’re still about ‘team.’”
He wasn’t being called “Ovi” yet. He hasn’t established his left dot office yet. But it was clear to everyone around him that Ovechkin was going to be a special player, and the proof was days away from unfolding.
