Alex Ovechkin made NHL history with some of his closest friends, family and hockey royalty in the building at Capital One Arena on Friday night. He scored career goals No. 893 and 894 to tie Wayne Gretzky for the most goals of all time.
But not everybody present got to witness that historic moment with their own eyes. According to TJ Oshie, he and other team alumni who participated in the ALL CAPS & Stanley Cup Era pre-game ceremony were on their way to meet Gretzky when Ovechkin scored his second goal of the game.
“I was walking right here actually,” Oshie told Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir post-game, gesturing to the hallway on the suite level of Capital One Arena. “We heard the roars and obviously Wayne’s in the building and a couple of us wanted to head over to Ted’s suite and say ‘Hi’, so we said ‘Let’s sneak down there real quick,’ the power play just ended and we heard the roars and we were like ‘No, no way.’”
Oshie described the frantic moment he and an unknown number of the alumni group that included Devante Smith-Pelley, Braden Holtby, Nicklas Backstrom and Brooks Orpik sprinted to the nearest television set and asked passersby what had just happened.
“We’re like ‘Who scored?’ and they’re like ‘The TV’s delayed, I don’t know!’ so we ran over and saw it and I was like ‘I can’t believe we missed it’, but in the building, we were here,” he continued.
During Capitals Postgame Live, Smith-Pelley, a studio analyst for the network, confirmed Oshie’s tragic recounting.
“Yeah it was hilarious because they got the power play and they killed it off so we were like ‘alright let’s go now,’ let’s say hi to Gary and Wayne and stuff like that and as soon as we got out of the elevator and into the halls, the walls were almost shaking and we were like ‘no way’ and so we ran to the TVs and saw it that way but like Osh said, we were in the building so that counts,” Smith-Pelley said.
Even though he didn’t actually see Ovechkin rip a classic one-timer from the left faceoff circle to tie “The Great One” live and in-person, that didn’t stop Oshie from appreciating his teammate’s massive moment.
“[It was] amazing,” he said. “When I’m not playing and I’m watching from afar, you really step back and are like, ‘gosh that’s a lot of goals.’ That’s a huge number and to stay healthy enough to even get there is – I mean as a man speaking from experience – that’s hard to do in itself, so, it was amazing for me and my family to be here tonight.”
Oshie is still technically a member of the Capitals but currently resides on LTIR with long-time centerman Nicklas Backstrom, both dealing with chronic injuries.
According to the Monumental Sports Network broadcast, Backstrom will travel with the team to Belmont, New York for Sunday’s tilt with the New York Islanders where Ovechkin will have his next opportunity to pass Gretzky.
