Deadspin | Capitals, Blue Jackets play finale with all eyes on Alex Ovechkin 
Apr 12, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) smiles while waving off a handshake line by the Pittsburgh Penguins after their game at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images Alex Ovechkin may be playing his final NHL game when the Washington Capitals visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Or he may not be. Either way, he isn’t playoff-bound, as the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated both the Capitals and the Blue Jackets from playoff contention.
Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer, is nearing the end of his 21st NHL season and is in the final season of a five-year contract. The 40-year-old left wing, who has scored 929 regular-season goals, has announced he will not make a decision regarding his future until this summer.
There was no ceremony of any kind during Washington’s final home game, a much-needed 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. Fans chanted “one more year” and the Penguins stayed on the ice after the game for a ceremonial handshake, but a smiling Ovechkin waved them off after Washington won its third straight game.
“The fans always support me, support the organization, team, boys,” Ovechkin said. “It was loud. It was the energy (that) we need. You can see how the boys played.”
Washington (42-30-9, 93 points) and Columbus (40-29-12, 92 points) were still alive in the playoff hunt until Philadelphia (42-27-12, 96 points) wrapped up third place in the Metropolitan Division on Monday.
After a disastrous six-game losing streak that knocked them down the standings and closer to elimination from playoff contention, the Blue Jackets have split their past four games, the latest being a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
Mason Marchment and Adam Fantilli scored, and Jet Greaves made 19 saves for the Blue Jackets.
“We’re all very, very disappointed in how it went tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said Sunday. “The guys are heartbroken, we’re heartbroken, and now we’ve lost total control of what’s going to happen.”
Columbus tied the score 2-2 early in the third period, but Boston scored the go-ahead goal midway through the period.
“I think we had to maybe up our urgency a little bit,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “I thought in the third we had a lot of grade-A chances to either take the lead or tie it back up. We missed on a few of them.”
In Washington on Sunday, Connor McMichael scored twice and had an assist and Ovechkin had an assist for the Capitals, who have won seven of nine. Logan Thompson made 24 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and second in three starts.
“I know our guys,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “And I know that there was no way we were gonna throw the towel in and just cruise in and hopefully play .500 hockey and ride it out. … I knew we would not pack it in, and we were gonna fight to win hockey games.”
Thompson is 5-1-0 with a 1.90 goals-against average and .942 save percentage against Columbus. Greaves, expected to start for the sixth straight game, is 2-2-1 with a 1.80 GAA and a .943 save percentage versus Washington.
Washington leads the season series 3-0-0. The teams have not met since Dec. 7 when Thompson made 39 saves in a 2-0 Washington home win. The Capitals won 5-1 on Nov. 24 behind two goals from Jakob Chychrun and 5-1 on Oct. 24 when Ovechkin scored his 899th goal and added an assist.
–Field Level Media
#Deadspin #Capitals #Blue #Jackets #play #finale #eyes #Alex #Ovechkin
Apr 12, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) smiles while waving off a handshake line by the Pittsburgh Penguins after their game at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images Alex Ovechkin may be playing his final NHL game when the Washington Capitals visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Or he may not be. Either way, he isn’t playoff-bound, as the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated both the Capitals and the Blue Jackets from playoff contention.
Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer, is nearing the end of his 21st NHL season and is in the final season of a five-year contract. The 40-year-old left wing, who has scored 929 regular-season goals, has announced he will not make a decision regarding his future until this summer.
There was no ceremony of any kind during Washington’s final home game, a much-needed 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. Fans chanted “one more year” and the Penguins stayed on the ice after the game for a ceremonial handshake, but a smiling Ovechkin waved them off after Washington won its third straight game.
“The fans always support me, support the organization, team, boys,” Ovechkin said. “It was loud. It was the energy (that) we need. You can see how the boys played.”
Washington (42-30-9, 93 points) and Columbus (40-29-12, 92 points) were still alive in the playoff hunt until Philadelphia (42-27-12, 96 points) wrapped up third place in the Metropolitan Division on Monday.
After a disastrous six-game losing streak that knocked them down the standings and closer to elimination from playoff contention, the Blue Jackets have split their past four games, the latest being a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
Mason Marchment and Adam Fantilli scored, and Jet Greaves made 19 saves for the Blue Jackets.
“We’re all very, very disappointed in how it went tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said Sunday. “The guys are heartbroken, we’re heartbroken, and now we’ve lost total control of what’s going to happen.”
Columbus tied the score 2-2 early in the third period, but Boston scored the go-ahead goal midway through the period.
“I think we had to maybe up our urgency a little bit,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “I thought in the third we had a lot of grade-A chances to either take the lead or tie it back up. We missed on a few of them.”
In Washington on Sunday, Connor McMichael scored twice and had an assist and Ovechkin had an assist for the Capitals, who have won seven of nine. Logan Thompson made 24 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and second in three starts.
“I know our guys,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “And I know that there was no way we were gonna throw the towel in and just cruise in and hopefully play .500 hockey and ride it out. … I knew we would not pack it in, and we were gonna fight to win hockey games.”
Thompson is 5-1-0 with a 1.90 goals-against average and .942 save percentage against Columbus. Greaves, expected to start for the sixth straight game, is 2-2-1 with a 1.80 GAA and a .943 save percentage versus Washington.
Washington leads the season series 3-0-0. The teams have not met since Dec. 7 when Thompson made 39 saves in a 2-0 Washington home win. The Capitals won 5-1 on Nov. 24 behind two goals from Jakob Chychrun and 5-1 on Oct. 24 when Ovechkin scored his 899th goal and added an assist.
–Field Level Media
![Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that. Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America, a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States.Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. In the book, Rothenberg gives an inside account at how American soccer went from the days where leagues were not organized and fizzled quickly to some of the success we have today with leagues like Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the United Soccer Leagues. He details his firsthand knowledge of what it took for the United States to host a successful soccer tournament at the 1984 Olympics, how the nation won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, and how he was able to organize the federation to get everything done and push the game forward. He recently sat down for an interview on the USA Soccercast, and in that interview, he mentioned that the rise in popularity of the game wasn’t based on one big moment, but a sustained buildup of momentum.“[American soccer] sort of grew when I was starting in 1990,” Alan Rothenberg, former U.S. Soccer president and CEO of the 1994 World Cup, said in an interview for the USA Soccercast. “I had a glimpse of it back in the 70s when we had a team in Los Angeles ,and obviously the Cosmos set the world on fire at that time with Pelé and [Franz] Beckebauer…you had Giants Stadium. So there were those glimpses of what the future could hold. But as we started to build the soccer federation, our [1994] World cup team and the World cup organization, it just started to accelerate. So there wasn’t one ‘a ha!’ moment.”Soccer Meets America takes the unique yet unexpected path of professional soccer in the United States andn gives the story some definition. Through people like Rothenberg, we see that the history is shaped by chance, persistence, and communities that kept the game alive long before it found mainstream recognition. Starting with the sport’s deep roots in immigrant communities in the 1920s, each episode of the docuseries explores soccer on a personal and professional level. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the series features a variety of influential figures in American soccer and aims to resonate with new and old fans of the sport alike.But there’s also the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, which will be different from what it was in 1994. “Well, obviously we’re starting from a different baseline,” Rothenberg said. “We started at virtually zero back in [1990], and now we’re starting from level 60 or 75…so the dramatic consequences will not be the same as they were after 94, but I think it’s going to be a huge spike in interest in the sport at all levels.”To grow the history, you must learn from it. And Soccer Meets America gives you a review of America’s soccer history and strengthes the foundations from which the sport’s culture and passion were created. As we approach the World Cup, that knowledge will be essential to craft the legacy that will carry long after the tournament ends. #Vox #Creative #Roku #debut #docuseries #history #American #soccer](https://i3.wp.com/platform.sbnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/gettyimages-2273772608.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.740350081171%2C100%2C78.519299837658&w=1200&ssl=1 "Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that. Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America, a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States.Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. In the book, Rothenberg gives an inside account at how American soccer went from the days where leagues were not organized and fizzled quickly to some of the success we have today with leagues like Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the United Soccer Leagues. He details his firsthand knowledge of what it took for the United States to host a successful soccer tournament at the 1984 Olympics, how the nation won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, and how he was able to organize the federation to get everything done and push the game forward. He recently sat down for an interview on the USA Soccercast, and in that interview, he mentioned that the rise in popularity of the game wasn’t based on one big moment, but a sustained buildup of momentum.“[American soccer] sort of grew when I was starting in 1990,” Alan Rothenberg, former U.S. Soccer president and CEO of the 1994 World Cup, said in an interview for the USA Soccercast. “I had a glimpse of it back in the 70s when we had a team in Los Angeles ,and obviously the Cosmos set the world on fire at that time with Pelé and [Franz] Beckebauer…you had Giants Stadium. So there were those glimpses of what the future could hold. But as we started to build the soccer federation, our [1994] World cup team and the World cup organization, it just started to accelerate. So there wasn’t one ‘a ha!’ moment.”Soccer Meets America takes the unique yet unexpected path of professional soccer in the United States andn gives the story some definition. Through people like Rothenberg, we see that the history is shaped by chance, persistence, and communities that kept the game alive long before it found mainstream recognition. Starting with the sport’s deep roots in immigrant communities in the 1920s, each episode of the docuseries explores soccer on a personal and professional level. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the series features a variety of influential figures in American soccer and aims to resonate with new and old fans of the sport alike.But there’s also the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, which will be different from what it was in 1994. “Well, obviously we’re starting from a different baseline,” Rothenberg said. “We started at virtually zero back in [1990], and now we’re starting from level 60 or 75…so the dramatic consequences will not be the same as they were after 94, but I think it’s going to be a huge spike in interest in the sport at all levels.”To grow the history, you must learn from it. And Soccer Meets America gives you a review of America’s soccer history and strengthes the foundations from which the sport’s culture and passion were created. As we approach the World Cup, that knowledge will be essential to craft the legacy that will carry long after the tournament ends. #Vox #Creative #Roku #debut #docuseries #history #American #soccer")
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