Ovechkin during warmups on Jan. 5, 2010. Caps Outsider has since gotten much better at photography.
On January 5, 2010, about a week after the Capitals traded captain Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus for Jason Chimera, the team named Alex Ovechkin as the new team captain, a position he’s had ever since.
There was no big announcement. Instead, Ovi simply came out for warmups in a home game against the Montreal Canadiens with the ‘C’ on his jersey.
Prior to that, and after the Clark trade, the Caps played a few games without a designated captain, but had three players wear an A: Ovi, Mike Knuble, and Brendan Morrison.
Here is Ovi speaking about it with reporters today:
Alex Ovechkin on 10 year anniversary as Captain of the Capitals. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/HxxGiKEBVn
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 4, 2020
Here’s Ovechkin’s press conference after his first game as captain, one of the few times he’s come out to the podium after a regular season game. Thanks to 106.7 for uploading:
Here’s a video we took of coach Bruce Boudreau prior to Ovi being captain, which made it look like picking him wasn’t inevitable.
“He’s the best player in the world and he’s the face of the franchise. Plus he’s a great teammate. The Caps organization should feel proud to name him captain,” said former Capitals captain Jeff Halpern, who was then with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team he’s with now as an assistant coach.
Ovechkin didn’t have any points as his first night as captain, but the Capitals beat Montreal, 4-2, but generally speaking, things have worked out well ever since.
Oddly enough, the same day Ovechkin became captain was the same day a young defenseman named John Carlson scored the game-winning goal in the World Junior Championships.
