Photo via Washington Capitals Twitter
Justin Williams is playing in his 1000th NHL game this evening against the Anaheim Ducks, and he was honored in a pre-game ceremony. NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, Jim Gregory, presented Williams with a commemorative crystal from the NHL. Williams also received the traditional Silver Stick from Ted Leonsis and the Capitals organization. While those gifts were listed in the press release and thus expected by Justin Williams, another gift came as a surprise.
Williams’ teammates collected money and purchased Justin a special golf trip for two to Scotland. Presumably this has been booked for July, because we’re hoping Williams and the Caps will be plenty busy until then. The team gift was presented by three players you wouldn’t expect to be wearing suits as healthy scratches; Alex Ovechkin, Nick Backstrom, and Brooks Orpik. With the Capitals having nothing left to play for during the regular season, those guys were given the day off. After 1,000 games you would think Williams was due for one himself, but we won’t be seeing him as a healthy scratch anytime soon.
Williams is the 304th player in NHL History to reach the 1,000-game plateau. He is now just 767 games behind Gordie Howe, although if anyone ever caught Howe, we’re pretty sure he’d come out of retirement to add to his total.
The 6’1”, 186-pound right wing has registered 52 points (22 goals, 30 assists) in 81 games with Washington this season, marking the fifth time in his career he has recorded 50 points in a season (2005-06, 2006-07, 2010-11, 2011-12). In addition, this season will mark the sixth time in his career he has played in every game in a season (2005-06, 2006-07, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14) and the fifth time he has reached 20 goals and 30 assists in a season (2005-06, 2006-07, 2010-11, 2011-12). Williams scored 30 goals in 2005-06 (31) and 2006-07 (33) and earned two points (one goal, one assist) in the 2007 NHL All-Star Game. He has registered 634 points (249 goals, 385 assists) in 999 career NHL games over 15 seasons with Philadelphia, Carolina, Los Angeles and Washington.
