{"id":61671,"date":"2025-07-13T07:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61671\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T07:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:31:09","slug":"lars-eller-reveals-the-gift-alex-ovechkin-got-all-his-teammates-and-what-he-did-on-the-bus-after-breaking-the-nhl-goals-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61671\/","title":{"rendered":"Lars Eller reveals the gift Alex Ovechkin got all his teammates and what he did on the bus after breaking the NHL goals record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lars Eller<\/strong> returned to the Washington Capitals in a familiar role early in the 2024-25 season. Acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a third- and fifth-round draft pick<\/a>, Eller retook his place down the middle of the third line \u2014 the same position he played when he scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in 2018 to help the Caps capture their first championship as a franchise.<\/p>\n

While Eller\u2019s final season in Washington had ups and downs, it gave him an opportunity to suit up during the Capitals\u2019 50th anniversary season, one of the most memorable in team history. Alex Ovechkin<\/strong>, who scored 44 goals in 65 games at age 39, made NHL history by breaking the all-time goals record on April 6 against the New York Islanders.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that was special,\u201d Eller said during a podcast appearance on Coming in Hot with Wallace and York<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to play a lot of years with Ovi and I\u2019m first of all so happy for him. At some point, he knew he was going to get there. The question is \u2018When?\u2019 and \u2018Can I get it done this season in time before the playoffs?\u2019 He was just on fire leading up to breaking his leg. When he got back, he kept just going at the same pace. Just unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s there to say about him?\u201d Eller continued. \u201cHe\u2019s just one of a kind, special, unique talent combination of physicality and a shot we might never see again. But also a drive to never quit and wanting more and more and more. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing, right? There\u2019s been other guys that\u2019s scored 40, 50, 60 goals, but not for year 20 for him. It is kind of ridiculous when you think about it that his body has been holding up and his mind is still, he can still motivate himself to wanting more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eller admitted that, while Ovechkin\u2019s chase could be distracting at times, he believed it proved a net benefit, especially given how the timing worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was certainly a lot of stuff happening around that,\u201d Eller said. \u201cThere was a lot of talk. It was a lot. I think it was good for us to get it done a week or two before the playoffs so it wasn\u2019t something that was going right into the playoffs. Because I was like after, now we can focus on the hockey again. I think that period was enough for us to take the focus away from that and prepare properly for what came next, the playoffs around the corner. If it was dragged into Game 81 or Game 82, maybe that wasn\u2019t good for the team. But I felt the way it played out, it didn\u2019t hurt us. On the contrary, there was so much joy and sharing these special moments; it was very unique. A lot of people will never forget as teammates taking part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Ovechkin reached immortality with his 895th goal, the Capitals captain got a generous gift for everyone on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOvi got Hublot watches for everyone,\u201d Eller said. \u201cCustomized Hublot watches. I think he even got it for trainers and staff members, not just the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thoughtful (and expensive) thank you came after Ovechkin was named by Hublot a \u201cfriend of the brand\u201d in 2019<\/a> and the company created a limited-edition watch honoring the Russian hockey star in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Apparently, Ovechkin also showed his appreciation to his teammates by nerding out like Dyan Strome with stats as the Capitals were traveling home from Long Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked through [who assisted on all his goals],\u201d Eller said. \u201c[Ovi] read through it. He read out loud on the bus on his goals, who had the most. I think I had four or five assists in there. So I was like in the top 25, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, according to a list posted by RMNB on April 6<\/a>, Eller assisted on eight of Ovechkin\u2019s goals, good for 37th all time. Nicklas Backstrom leads with 279 apples, followed by John Carlson (158) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (110). The podcast also mentioned that Ovechkin assisted on six of Eller\u2019s 188 career goals, including three primary assists.<\/p>\n

Eller signed a one-year deal with the up-and-coming Ottawa Senators<\/a> over the summer, but his family\u2019s home will remain in the DC area. Eller will practice and skate in the region before Senators\u2019 training camp stars in the fall.<\/p>\n

Looking back on the 2024-25 campaign, Eller admitted how special the team was. After barely making the playoffs the season before, the team coalesced around Ovechkin and ended up being the Eastern Conference\u2019s best team by the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of young guys took huge steps forward and we just became a really good team,\u201d Eller said. \u201cBoth our goalies playing well. It was like every young player took a step. It felt like some of the guys took two or three steps forward and became young established players who became really good NHL players. And then, yeah, you can put together a season like that. Probably a lot better than what a lot of people thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\/T to RMNB commenter Hana for tipping us off on the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lars Eller returned to the Washington Capitals in a familiar role early in the 2024-25 season. Acquired from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-61671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114844761459143821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}