Amid his 20th 30-goal campaign, Alex Ovechkin's future is unclear

Alex Ovechkin is still scoring. That's the part that gives everyone around the Washington Capitals' captain pause, wondering whether it really could be his final lap in the NHL.

In the final stretch of the season, as the Capitals slipped -- first wobbling, then falling perhaps too far out of the Eastern Conference race after trading away key players at the trade deadline -- Ovechkin went in the other direction. A seven-goal burst over seven games in late March made it feel as if Ovechkin might drag the Capitals back in.

"He's taken it to another level," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "You've noticed an uptick in his game. The thing that I watch for is the physicality. He's getting way more involved, two or three big hits a game where he's running through people and he's scoring a little bit, this is kind of his time of the year where he feels like, 'All right, it's playoff time.'"

Even though Ovechkin doesn't cover as much ice with his skating -- his slower, more laborious strides have been noticeable, especially this season -- his will remains consistent.

"When he scores one, he wants another one," longtime teammate Tom Wilson said. "When he scores two, he wants three."

Ovechkin has been, and remains, the pulse of his team in his 21st NHL season.

"For our whole group, it's a weird feeling. It's like they feel like if O can score, you get this confidence from our whole group, we're going to find a way to win," Carbery said. "If O scores, we're winning this hockey game."

The numbers say one thing. The calendar says another.

Ovechkin is 40. His contract -- a five-year, $47.5 million deal he signed in July 2021 -- expires this summer. Fans already are treating games like they might be the last.

Ticket prices in Washington have surged on the possibility, with people paying for a "just in case" glimpse Sunday as Ovechkin takes on longtime rival Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, potentially for the final time. According to Vivid Seats, the Capitals-Penguins game Sunday is the third most in-demand Capitals regular-season home game on record (since 2007), with an average sale price of $310.

And yet, the man at the center of it all refuses to give any inclination either way. In an interview with Monumental Sports this week, Ovechkin said he will wait until this summer to determine his plans. Those closest to Ovechkin have been telling him to take all the time he needs.

As he went through this season -- the one that followed a celebratory campaign, in which Ovechkin surpassed Wayne Gretzky to become the league's all-time goal-scoring leader -- the winger just tried to stay present.

"I still have game. I still have passion," Ovechkin told ESPN in October. "You just enjoy it because you never know when you're going to get hurt -- or when you're going to be retired."

THE KEY TO Ovechkin's longevity -- he has missed less than 5% of his 1,570 career games because of injury -- has always been doing things his own way. NHL teams employ entire departments dedicated to optimizing sleep and nutrition; recovery protocols are measured down to the minute.

Ovechkin has lived through that evolution -- and in many ways, he ignored it.

"I'm kind of old generation," he said with a smile.

Every game day, it's the same routine.

"He gets two big bags dropped off. There's the team meal, and then there's, like, the Ovi station of Mamma Lucia," Wilson said. "Bunch of different sauces, bunch of different stuff. He's very specific on toasting his garlic bread and making sure the sauces are right in what he's eating. It's a spectacle. I think at one point, we had to clean the pillar beside where he sits because there's tomato sauce everywhere."

No one really questions it anymore. There's the Coca-Cola that the equipment managers pour into his plastic water bottle on the bench.

"It was my trainer from Russia who said people who run marathons, they drink the Coke for energy," Ovechkin said. "So, I said, 'OK, let's try to do that.' So since then, sometimes couple sips, it's not too bad for you."

There's also the pregame run to a Subway in a gas station on travel days -- complete with a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. And he doesn't shy away from a postgame beer.

"Everybody's different," Ovechkin said. "Some people love Subway, McDonald's, whatever, and they're still playing hockey. Maybe it's not right for young generation, but you know, I grow up differently."

It's not that he dismisses modern thinking. It's more that he never felt the need to adopt it. Why change something that has worked this long?

"If I was on his regimen," Wilson said, "I don't think we'd be sitting here talking."

And yet, the secret sauce isn't the diet, but the work. That's part of the equation that gets lost in the stories about soda and sandwiches.

"He also has his own personal trainer, Pavel, that travels over from Russia and does a lot of work with him at the track, running, all sorts of different stuff," Carbery said. "There's a few stories of late night, and we're wrapping up work as coaches, and then all of a sudden, the music will start blaring in the weight room. It will be Ovi in there with three other Russian guys, and they're doing power lifting. And this is after we've already practiced for the day and already had a workout. They're doing their own two-a-day."

Added Wilson: "When he skates on the ice, you hear him coming. And when you see him squat, his numbers are through the roof. He's strong as an ox. One of the strongest, most raw power human beings I've ever met."

OVECHKIN'S PROCESS ON deciding his future is two-fold: How does his body feel? And does he feel like he still has a chance to win?

Ovechkin delves further into the first issue: his health. It's not just about whether he can perform now, but how he'll feel years from now. His sons, Sergei (7) and Ilya (5), have become his priority.

"I don't want to play hockey and then when I'm retired, I can't play soccer with my kids or I can't skate with them when they're gonna be a little bit older," Ovechkin said. "So yeah, health is most important thing."

As for the chance to win, this season had deflating moments. Management is trying to retool on the fly, but has made difficult decisions ahead of the March 6 trade deadline. Nic Dowd, the team's top shutdown center, was traded to Vegas for draft picks.

That paled to the pain the locker room felt when defenseman John Carlson -- who had been with the franchise 17 years -- was traded in the middle of the night to the Anaheim Ducks. Everyone on the Caps knew it was a possibility that Carlson, who is also in the last year of the deal, could be traded. The move actually happening sent shockwaves.

"It's obviously a sad day. Probably the toughest day in my career, talking about personal-wise," Ovechkin said the day after the trade. "It sucks. It's sad. He's obviously the best defenseman in the franchise's history. A leader. An unbelievable man and a great friend for all of us."

The Carlson trade netted yet another first-round pick. And the arrival of top prospects Cole Hutson and Ilya Protas at the end of the season has given the team hope for the future.

Ovechkin's process, GM Chris Patrick said, will also include discussions with ownership and the coaching staff about his role. He's always been more adaptable than many give him credit for. During some early seasons, he even tried right wing.

A big storyline this season was the Caps heavily sheltering Ovechkin's minutes, giving him virtually zero defensive-zone starts. That morphed this season, in part due to necessity, especially after trading Dowd.

"I've gotten away from just exclusive O-zone starts and giving them all those to more just rolling," Carbery said ahead of Sunday's game against the New York Rangers. "It's been a difficult balance, but I just think to get our whole group in at this point in the year, probably two weeks ago, we just said we're going to commit to playing more everybody in different situations. Give him some D-zone starts, give O some starts back there and spread it out a little."

Entering this weekend, Ovechkin has scored 31 goals on the season, his 20th 30-goal campaign.

OVECHKIN'S LEGACY INCLUDES being one of the greatest athletes to represent the D.C. area. Youth hockey has surged 187% in D.C. since Ovechkin's rookie season. He's a fan favorite whose charitable efforts -- especially with children's hospitals and pediatric cancer research -- have been consistent and quietly impactful.

On the ice, he has maintained that the most important thing to him is winning a championship. And yet, he's the prime example of just how hard that is in the NHL, which prides itself on parity. Ovechkin didn't win a Stanley Cup until his 13th season; that remains the only Stanley Cup Final that he has reached, despite 15 playoff appearances.

Those around Ovechkin insist that any conjecture about what his future might hold isn't coming from his inner circle. Ovechkin's most trusted confidants include his wife, his mother, and a small team that includes agents and lawyers.

The report that Ovechkin has never been interested in a farewell tour? The inner circle insists it didn't come from them.

This season, Ovechkin swapped jerseys and equipment with rival players after numerous games, often walking toward the opposing locker room for a private exchange. Anze Kopitar, Mikael Backlund, Evgeni Malkin, Brad Marchand, Nico Hischier and Brady Tkachuk are among the players whom Ovechkin sought out.

Though it was assumed that Ovechkin was archiving his era in real time, making memories while not formally saying goodbye, he clarified late in the season to NHL.com that the swaps have nothing to do with his pending retirement. He had been wanting to start the swaps several years earlier, but the Caps' equipment manager told him to wait. A memorabilia lover, Ovechkin is collecting for a museum he is curating in his hometown of Moscow.

But there seems to be more finality with how Ovechkin has approached the final stretch, perhaps as a "just in case." There will be a photo opportunity with Crosby ahead of Sunday's game, for example.

Though Ovechkin has asked for more time to make the decision, he has been bracing for the inevitability.

"Sooner or later, it's going to happen," he said. "You have to find the right place and right time."