LOVERRO: McPhee’s timely assist got the Ovechkin era on track

OPINION:

Alex Ovechkin set the NHL career goals record Sunday, but days later, Washington is still celebrating.

The partying for Washington Capitals fans began Friday night at Capital One Arena after the sellout crowd exploded when Ovechkin scored two goals, including the 894th goal that tied him with Wayne Gretzky.

And the festivities aren’t nearly over. There will be more celebrations Thursday night when Ovechkin returns home to face the Carolina Hurricanes and then again on Sunday for the home finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets — fan appreciation day.

I think Ovechkin has already delivered one of the best gifts Capitals fans could hope for to show the organization’s appreciation.

What fans should know is that if not for three days in August 2005, all of this may not have happened — or, at the very least, been put off with uncertainty for another year.

Three days in August 2005 that decided Ovechkin’s immediate and long-term future delivered the delirium that Capitals fans are now feeling.

With all the reflection on Ovechkin’s 20-year career, I recalled a conversation I had with former general manager George McPhee when he was in Washington. It reminded me that if McPhee weren’t a good closer, there’s a chance Capitals fans would be watching the end of the 2025 season wondering if their star player could sustain his career into 2026 long enough to break Gretzky’s record.

It has been well-documented that after the Capitals, with the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NHL draft, selected the young Russian phenom, the league was beginning a season-long labor lockout. Ovechkin stayed in Russia to keep playing for the Dynamo Moscow hockey team in the Russian Super League, where he had been playing for three seasons since he was 16 years old.

When the lockout ended, the Caps got down to business to bring Ovechkin to Washington to start his NHL career. But that was no lock. He had already signed a deal to play for the Avangard Omsk hockey club in Russia for fear that the lockout would continue. He had an out in the contract if the NHL returned to the ice. But it was a very short window — three days.

“We had three days to bring him over before the contract would preclude him from coming,” McPhee told me. “We had a conference call with the agent, interpreters, his parents, and a few other people, about the possibility of signing him.

“You could tell from the conversation his parents probably didn’t want him to come over that season because he was committed to this other team in Russia and was at their training camp and would play one more year before he came over,” McPhee said.

Ovechkin, though, wanted to play in the NHL. McPhee had to convince his parents that the Capitals would do right by their son.

“I promised the parents we would look after their son,” McPhee told me. “I said I will make sure he is taken care of here. With that, they said OK, and he was coming.”

McPhee got a call a month later — around the time that Ovechkin turned 20 — that their prize rookie prospect was in town, staying at a downtown Washington hotel across from the arena.

“I didn’t even know he was in town,” McPhee said. “No one had notified us. I called him and said, ’Alex, I promised your parents I would look after you. I am not going to have a teenager staying in a hotel in D.C. You don’t know your way around.’”

Ovechkin then came to stay at McPhee’s house until training camp began and he moved into a hotel with the other players.

On the ice, whether in Moscow or Washington, Ovechkin was home.

“Olie Kolzig (Capitals goaltender and the heart of those pre-Ovechkin teams) after the first time on the ice with him, told me, ’That’s the best player I’ve ever seen.’ He said Ovechkin was powerful and his shot overwhelming.

“We are banking on this guy being an elite player,” McPhee said. “That meant something.”

It would mean everything to this franchise.

If McPhee had not convinced Ovechkin’s parents — both influential figures in the young Russian’s life — to let their son come to America in 2005, he would have started his NHL career a year later.

That would have put Gretzky’s record at least one year further in the distance — who knows how a 40-year-old Ovechkin might have fared in the quest to break Gretzky’s record?

Ovechkin has stunned many with a remarkable season at the age of 39, scoring 42 goals in 61 games. That’s 11 goals better than his number last season in 79 games. But circumstances can be unpredictable on the ice, and so can a 40-year-old body, even one as durable as Ovechkin’s. It is certainly possible that he might have had to wait even another year to pass Gretzky.

McPhee made an important save when he said they would take good care of Ovechkin. Since then, Ovechkin has been taking care of the Capitals.

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