As hockey season winds down, baseball season is about to begin. That means we’re getting closer to warm weather and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Add March Madness college basketball into the mix and it’s one of the best sports times of the year!
With baseball season beginning MLB teams have begun to announce promotions for their upcoming season and one from the Washington Nationals caught our eye as hockey fans. On May 16th the Nationals will give out Alex Ovechkin bobbleheads when they take on the Baltimore Orioles. It’s a great choice of matchup, as the Orioles share the area’s media market so there’s a good overlap of Orioles fans who are Capitals fans as well.
The bobble head is specifically designed after Ovechkin throwing out the first pitch right after the Capitals won their first Stanley Cup championship in 2018. While the cup itself was in attendance that day Lord Stanley got left out of the bobble head. Instead Ovechkin, with an accurate missing tooth, is wearing a Nationals jersey and a hat that says “champs”. We can fairly assume that’s a reference to the Capitals 2017-2018 squad.
A lot has happened since that first pitch (as MLB.com notes Ovechkin actually throw out a second pitch after the fans chanted his name after the first pitch ended in a mishap). The Nationals won their only champion a season later with the 2019 World Series. Although the Capitals haven’t repeated as champions Ovechkin of course broke hockey’s almost unbreakable record when he passed Alex Ovechkin for most goals scored in NHL history last season. Ovechkin has also returned to Nationals Park to throw out a first pitch three additional times.
The promotion comes at what might be the end of Ovechkin’s storied NHL career. This is the last year of Ovechkin’s contract and rumors have swirled since before the season even began if the “Great 8” will either retire at seasons end or return to play out his career in his native Russia. A mistakenly sent email to Capitals season ticket holders before this season mistakenly said the 2025-2026 season would be Ovechkin’s last in the NHL. Although the team quickly came to say no decision had been made yet on Ovechkin’s future it still lead to increased speculation that fans might want to see him sooner rather than later.
No word yet on if Ovechkin will be in attendance for his own bobble head day. If the Capitals make the playoffs and any potential games would take priority. Ovechkin is one of the greatest DC area athletes of all time, and perhaps the greatest DC area athlete of the past two decades spending his entire career with the Capitals. A 2022 Sporting News article rightfully gave Ovechkin a place on Washington D.C.’s sports “Mount Rushmore”. Can you think of any athlete from one of the DC area sports teams that had the success and longevity of Ovechkin in their respective sports since Ovechkin entered the league during the 2005-2006 season?
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an MLB team look towards an NHL team for a promotion. The Miami Marlins have held “Panthers Nights” to honor the Florida Panthers in recent memory. If this really is Ovechkin’s last season then the bobble head the National are making is sure to be a highly sought after collectable keepsake.