Washington Capitals Might be so Had a pretty incredible first game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
With regular replacement captains Niklas Backstrom, John Carlson, TJ Ossey and Tom Wilson all sidelined due to injury, Peter LaViolette Evgeny Kuznetsov When Dmitry Orlov of As and opportunities to serve under Alex Ovechkin in the leadership team.
This appears to be the first time in the history of the franchise that there was an all-Russian player as Captain of the Capitals during the game (although this has not been confirmed).
Note: It’s worth pointing out that it’s almost impossible to be 100% sure of this, as no historical data for alternate captains has been made public.
Here are pictures of all three from the warm-up.
The Capitals have had great Russian leaders like Sergey Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov in the past, but only Ovechkin has captained the team, beginning his reign (2010). January 5, 2019 against Montreal) Canadiens) after Fedorov and Kozlov moved out of DC.
Kuznetsov got his chance due to Osier’s injury, but Orlov got an A after John Carlsson missed two games in a row. Carlson is likely to return to action in the game later this week, so the captain’s Russian troika could end tonight.
This could also be an NHL first, but it’s hard to know for sure.
Ovechkin includes Alexei Yashin (Senators and Islanders), Alex Kovalev (Canadiens), Ilya Kovalchuk (Thrashers), Pavel Bure (Panthers), Alexei Zamnov (Blackhawks), and Alexander Mogilny (Sabers). He is one of seven Russian NHL players, including ).
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB