Insane statistic for NHL great puts Washington Commanders playoff drought in perspective

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Just how long had it been since the Washington Commanders last won a playoff game, prior to Sunday night’s 23-20 Wild Card victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Alex Ovechkin — Commanders fans may have heard of him — had 25 career NHL goals.

On 01/06/2006 Alex Ovechkin scored career goal 25 in his 05-06 rookie season. The next night the Redskins would beat the Bucs in the playoffs

The Commanders just beat the Bucs for their first playoff win since, w/ Ovi scoring 848 goals in between Washington football playoff wins

— Mike Callow (@Mike_Callow) January 13, 2025Ovechkin, likely the most decorated athlete in the history of Washington, D.C. professional sports, is now at 873, only 22 tallies away from becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer. The Washington Capitals captain is the only remaining member of any of the major four D.C. teams who was active at the time of the football franchise’s last playoff win.

In that same span, the Commanders have been through 22 starting quarterbacks, seven coaches (including Bill Callahan’s interim stint in 2019), two ownership groups and three different team names. They have been one of the most dysfunctional organizations in not just the NFL, but in all of sports.

It’s certainly quite the perspective, and a tale of the polar opposite recent identities of two different franchises which share such a large fanbase overlap. Athletes like Ovechkin who spend entire 20-plus-year careers racking up all-time accolades with one team are exceptionally rare cases, while what the Commanders have been through during that time is also rare — for the wrong reasons.

For much of the past 20 years, Ovechkin’s Capitals have had to carry the torch for D.C. sports despite the football team being a much more historically relevant brand. Now, with the legendary career of the “Great Eight” winding to a close, the Commanders are back on the rise.

Despite having no playoff series wins since their 2018 Stanley Cup championship, the Capitals are still competitive — in fact they are currently tied for the league lead in the NHL standings with 61 points and a record of 28-10-5. If the Commanders can remain an annual playoff team throughout the Jayden Daniels era, though, they will once dominate the talk of the town for years on end.

Win or lose, Washington will always be a football city at its core. In the meantime, though, thanks for holding down the fort, Ovi.

Ryan McCafferty

Ryan McCafferty is a die-hard sports fan from Fairfax, Virginia. He has been a freelance writer for Sporting News since November of 2024, and before that contributed at Yardbarker for two years, mostly covering Washington-area professional teams. His primary interests include the NFL, NBA, NHL, and NASCAR racing, and though his local squads will always be number one in his heart, he considers himself a fan of the action above all else.