The Capitals winger will play in his 1,000th NHL game on Saturday against the Canucks, and it's taken just about everything for him to get to this point.

WASHINGTON — T.J. Oshie is no stranger to sacrifice.

From Washington to Warroad to the Washington Capitals, Oshie has given everything to hockey. There was no other option for the 37-year-old, whose relentless motor, impressive work ethic and happy-go-lucky personality has led him to 1,000 NHL games.

"He's a big part of our team on the ice and off the ice. He's a warrior, he's a leader and pretty happy for him," captain Alex Ovechkin said.

When asked about Oshie, his teammates light up, quick to cite his impact on and off the ice.

"A lot of energy," Nic Dowd kept it simple when it came to defining his teammate.

"The motor of our dressing room," fellow Minnesotan and teammate Charlie Lindgren declared.

Oshie's road to 1,000 has been no easy feat, as it was paved with literal blood, sweat and tears; he has had to overcome adversity time and time again to reach this point.

It all started when Oshie was just a kid from Everett, Washington. His father, Tim, coached him and helped him fall in love with the game, but the closest rink was 45 minutes away, and to make matters worse, the only ice time he could get was at 10 p.m. on school nights.

Despite the hardships, Oshie did what he could to make it work. He spent hours in the car going back and forth to the rink and driving to Canada for tournaments on weekends, and he would find himself getting home around 2 a.m. and waking up early for school the next day.

"It was tough for me as a kid... it was super, super difficult," Oshie told The Hockey News. "I had some skill back then, but I wasn't a great skater for lack of being on the ice."

But it was worth it. There was just something about the game that kept Oshie coming back to the rink, whether that would be his future or not. Then, his cousin, Henry Boucha, changed his life with a suggestion: move to Warroad.

As a teenager, Oshie knew he still had ways to go when it came to hockey, and a move to Stanwood after his parents' divorce only led him further from the rink. So, Oshie decided to pack it all up and headed East.

It made all the difference.

"I had some skill back then, but I wasn't a great skater prior for lack of being on the ice. So when I went to Warroad, that's when my skating improved... I started making strides," Oshie recalled.

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Oshie spent hours on the ice in Warroad, skating until he couldn't skate anymore and working on skating, stickhandling and every other detail of his game. He also grew closer to his Native American roots, earning the name "Keeway Gaaboo" — which fittingly translates to "Coming Home," at a pow-wow when he turned 15.

The vivacious, relentless, driven Oshie would ultimately wear the "C" for his high school Warroad Warriors and earn a scholarship to North Dakota, and it also put him on the NHL scene as the St. Louis Blues took him in the first round of the 2005 NHL Draft.

At the time, Oshie was at friend Eric Olimb's house, watching Real World on MTV as Eric booted up his dial-up Internet, only to find that Oshie had been taken 24th overall.

For Oshie, he'd just wanted to play hockey; now, he'd be doing it for a living.

"I just imagined that I'd always play hockey, and that's kind of where my dream ended," Oshie said. "My dream was to just score the game-winning goal in overtime, and that was kind of what I did every day in the backyard, and that was it. I was never stressed out about what I was going to do when I grew up; I kind of had my mind made up that I was just going to play hockey, and that was it. There was no other option."

Fast-forward to the summer of 2015. Oshie had wrapped up his seventh year with the Blues, racking up 55 points in 72 games. He'd played through injuries and sacrificed everything to get St. Louis as far as he could. Then, he got the phone call that would change his life: he had been traded to the Capitals.

"The way he plays, you cheer for the guy and his character," general manager Brian MacLellan, who orchestrated the Oshie trade, said of No. 77. "He plays hard."

That's an understatement. Oshie's a gritty, skilled winger who doesn't shy away from getting to the dirty areas, battles for every puck and doesn't give up on the play, while also showing quite a bit of physicality. He'll skate through just about anything, and that leadership on and off the ice has made him a staple in D.C.

Since arriving in the Nation's Capital ahead of the 2015-16 season, Oshie has transformed into an icon in his own right. He has 379 points in 556 games so far with the Capitals, and in 2018, he was instrumental in leading the franchise to its first Stanley Cup title.

"It's unbelievable," Lindgren added of Oshie, saying, "You realize how important of a piece he is. I remember our trainer here, Woody — I'd never met T.J. before I got here, but he's got Minnesota roots — was telling me that he's never seen T.J. have a bad day. That's definitely what I've noticed. He's just always the guy that's pumping everyone up, always got a smile on his face and just an incredible teammate."

All the while, he's made sacrifice after sacrifice, playing through numerous injuries and chronic back issues in order to help his team. And though a change in playing style could probably be beneficial, he refuses to give in.

"Unfortunately, the rest of my career here, there's just going to be some times where I'm just not able to walk for a couple of weeks, and that's the way she goes," he said matter-of-factly last year. "It's a long road, but I wouldn't change the way I played in my past or myself or style of play for anything." employment

"That's dedication," John Carlson, who is nearing 1,000 games himself, noted. "There's gonna be some good nights and there's gonna be a lot of bad days throughout a career, whether that's with or without injuries and how the team's doing. There's so much that goes into just putting your equipment on and showing up on the ice; it's perseverance, it's dedication, rehabbing, everything. It's not an easy thing to do."

As Oshie's long, winding road and story continues, the father of four is just grateful to still be coming to the rink on a daily basis.

"I didn't really dream about people wearing my jersey, you know?... It's a game I love and still love today," Oshie said. "All the support and fans wearing my jersey and recognition, it's unbelievable. Teams I've been on, that's just a bonus. My dream was just to play hockey forever."