Capitals: 5 Under-Appreciated Goals in the Ovechkin Era

Here are the five most underappreciated goals in the Ovi era.

It should go without saying that the Washington Capitals have scored a lot of goals since Alexander Ovechkin joined the club in 2005-2006. Ovechkin himself has scored over 771 goals since his debut (playoff goals included). Since he joined the team, the Caps have consistently been a playoff team, making it to the dance in 12 of Ovi’s 15 seasons. This means that there have been a lot of big goals scored in that time.

Some big goals include Joel Ward’s series-winning goal in 2012 against the Boston Bruins. Another huge goal would be Lars Eller’s Stanley-Cup winning tuck in game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. And who can forget Evgeny Kuznetsov exorcising the demons in overtime of game 6 of the 2018 second round against the Pittsburgh Penguins? These are all big goals that stick out to Caps fans as being massive goals for the franchise.

Then there are goals that have fallen out of the limelight as a result of the recent Stanley Cup victory in 2018. Their significance diminished when compared to the more-important goals that rightfully come during a Stanely-Cup run. These goals that were scored before 2018 have not lost their value, they have just been lost in the shuffle of the goals scored on the grander stage. Some goals were scored in the playoffs, some in the regular season. Whether these goals were impactful towards a series; held ground because of their context; or were just a pure-skill goal, there are a lot of goals that do not get the love they deserve. I feel that these goals need to have their flames rekindled by the Capitals’ faithful and I plan on igniting the charge with this list.

These goals will be in no particular order, and are, as per usual, my opinion. What does this mean? Well, although I was around during Ovechkin’s early years, I wasn’t quite as dialed-in to what the Capitals were up to and the significance of a goal. That came years later when I really decided that hockey was the sport for me, and the Capitals were my team of choice. I am only saying this because I don’t want some 40-year-old fan yelling at me about how crucial some Chris Clark goal was back in 2007. I get it, but there were a lot of important goals scored after I came around to the Caps.

With that out of the way, let’s get into it.