With the NHL season on pause due to the coronavirus, we’re digging into the archives for a look back at some great moments in Capitals history.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll present a series of ‘This Date in Capitals History’ features.
We continue with March 27:
March 27, 2009: Alex Ovechkin secured his third career 100-point campaign with two goals and two assists as the Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 at Verizon Center.
Ovechkin would finish the 2008-09 season with 56 goals and 110 points en route to capturing his second consecutive Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.
Defenseman Brian Pothier scored the game-winning goal early in the third period of the Capitals’ 10th consecutive win over Tampa Bay. This was Pothier’s fourth game back from a career-threatening injury he had suffered more than a year earlier. It was his first goal in exactly 15 months.
“I just told him 15 months is way too long in between goals,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said at the time. “You just think of the mountain the man had to climb. If you guys knew the days he came in — he couldn’t even focus, and he just sat there and he’d bring his kids in and he’d walked around and he’d leave. He practiced for two straight months without getting cleared, and he worked so hard, and to see a little bit of success happen to him tonight was really uplifting.”
The 2008-09 Capitals won their second consecutive Southeast Division before ultimately falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
