Alex Ovechkin’s farewell season has not started the way anyone expected.
Through 16 games, the 41-year-old Capitals winger has only one goal and four points, and he’s now gone 11 straight games without scoring. At his current pace, he would finish with just five goals, which would be the lowest total of his career by a wide margin.
That kind of production stands out even more because consistency has been Ovechkin’s calling card for more than two decades. He has topped 30 goals in all but one of his previous 21 seasons, with the lone exception coming in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, when he scored 24 times in 45 games.
The slide this season comes after a much stronger 2024-25, when Ovechkin put up 32 goals and 64 points in 82 games while extending his lead on the all-time goals list. He scored goal No. 895 in April of 2025 to pass Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history. Entering this season, he had 929 career goals and was still nine shy of Gretzky’s combined regular-season and playoff mark, a record that looked destined to fall when the year began.
Whether this is age catching up with him or simply another rough patch is still up for debate. Ovechkin has been through long dry spells before, including a 14-game goal drought early in the 2023-24 season. He had just seven goals in his first 34 games that year before finishing with 31 in 79.
This drought is longer than that one was, though, and it’s happening while his ice time has dipped to a career-low 13:47 per game. Even last season, when he logged the lowest average of his career at 17:26, he was still well above that mark.
“I’m happy with his play,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery told the Washington Post this week of Ovechkin’s season to date. “I like what I’m seeing, the underlying numbers, the shifts, the film.
He’s doing good things, so that’s what I care about. And now, obviously, I’d love to see [him] get rewarded with a few ending up in the back of the net.”
Ovechkin said Tuesday before an overtime win over the Ottawa Senators, “You just have to stick with it,” Ovechkin added Tuesday before an overtime win over the Ottawa Senators. “You have to work. It doesn’t matter how many minutes you play, you just have to go up there, do the best that you can to help the team win.”
He is still on Washington’s top power-play unit and is averaging 3:12 of power-play ice time per game, but the Capitals’ man advantage has not clicked. The team is converting at just 18.2 percent, ranking 25th in the league, and Ovechkin has not scored on the power play yet this season.
Even with their captain’s struggles and a sluggish power play, the Capitals are still in the mix in the Eastern Conference. They are two points behind the Florida Panthers and four behind the Ottawa Senators in the wild-card chase, with three games in hand on both. In the Metropolitan Division, Washington sits three points behind the New York Rangers for third place and has four games in hand.
In Other News...
Capitals Face A New Devils Problem In Crucial Metro Test
A home-and-home with New Jersey arrives at a useful moment for Washington, which is trying to keep pace in a Metropolitan Division race that has already tightened up. The opener in Newark gives the Capitals an immediate read on a Devils club that looks different than the one they saw earlier, with both sides having made notable roster changes since their last meeting.
For Washington, the biggest wrinkle is in goal. New Jerseys recent addition of Connor Hellebucyk has given the Devils a steadier look in net, and that changes the challenge for a Capitals team that needs points and needs them in a hurry. With the standings still crowded and the two clubs meeting twice in quick succession, this stretch could say plenty about where each team fits in the division picture. [Read more 🡒]