"As soon as I'm not gonna enjoy it, probably it's not right for me to stay here," the Capitals captain declared.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Nineteen seasons ago, Alex Ovechkin made his NHL debut with the Washington Capitals, and felt the nerves on Day 1 as he struck twice and introduced himself to the league. Now, 19 years and 822 goals later, he feels the nerves again, along with that same hunger.
As he continues his "GR8 Chase" of Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record — he's also one goal away from scoring the most era-adjusted goals in the history of the Show — the Capitals captain is still driven by his unrelenting love of the game after all this time.
"As soon as I'm not gonna enjoy it, probably it's not right for me to stay here and play the game I want to play," Ovechkin declared, adding, "[I'm driven by] just the game, you know? Just atmosphere on the ice, and off the ice, obviously, being in the locker room. I'm just having some fun, you know?"
Friday's season opener can't come soon enough for him, either. Washington is coming off a lost season that saw the team miss the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, while Ovechkin himself also grieved the death of his father and missed a handful of games due to a myriad of injuries.
"Soon as it's gone, it's gone. Nothing you can do. For most of us, it was kind of hard year, personal-wise, injury-wise," Ovechkin said. "Most important thing is coming back healthy, coming back ready for training camp and ready for the season."
He spent the summer back home in Russia and also vacationed, using the time away to reflect, and, most importantly, recover.
"As you get older, your body's not the same. You know, you have to take care of it, you have to do some more treatments, more kind of take it easy, you know?" Ovechkin explained. "I feel pretty good. You can see lots of guys feels pretty good, and how I said, that's very important thing for us."
Now back and healthy, he's not only driven to help the team return to playoff territory, but he's also hungry to keep doing what he does best: filling the net.
"I think his joy for scoring, his hunger for scoring is just incredible. I've never seen a guy who loves scoring goals more than him," Nicklas Backstrom said. It's been fun being a part of that and see it live every day. I think that's his hunger. He wants to compete, he plays hard, it's awesome."
There's more to Ovechkin than that, though.
"Number one is his leadership, and he carries a lot of that in our room," head coach Spencer Carbery added. "Players, veteran and younger, look to him to lead by example from a standpoint of practice, from a standpoint of how hard he competes. Two is his play on the ice. I just expect him to play to his standard, and that's being an effective player in all three zones for us, to be able to get to good spots in the offensive zone, be a catalyst on our power play, make good decisions with the puck... that's what I imaging he'll continue to do."
The Capitals kick things off with a rivalry showdown against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and for Ovechkin, there's no better way to kick things off than that, especially as he stresses the need to start the season on the right foot.
Still, there's excitement there, and the most important thing for No. 8 is to send a message.
"First game gonna be a little nervous, little bit kind of, 'What do I have to do right away? Should I shoot the puck? Should I hit someone? Get the dust off your shoulders. Preseason game is preseason game, you know? You didn't get the energy from the crowd, you didn't get the energy from the locker room, it's kind of different thing. Right now, it's our most exciting time of the year... we're ready to go."