'Hockey's Going to Feel Weird When He's Gone': Predators Prepare For Alexander Ovechkin's Last Trip To Nashville

NASHVILLE — The Nashville Predators welcome the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history into Bridgestone Arena on Thursday as Alexander Ovechkin plays his final regular season game on Broadway.

Ovechkin, 41, announced that his 22nd season in the NHL would be his last, making Thursday's game his last regular season contest in Bridgestone Arena. His 930 career goals are No. 1 in league history, passing Wayne Gretzky's 894 in April of 2025. He has 31 games against Nashville, scoring 20 goals and 32 points, leaving an indelible impression on every team he's faced.

"Yeah, I've played against him a long time," Steven Stamkos said. "Obviously, the best goal-scorer to ever play this game. As much as you'd like to see him go on forever, I think it's a good time to celebrate what he's done for our game. Him and Crosby brought this league back to life when they came into the league. Had some really good battles against him over the years. Just still mind-boggling to me how many goals he's scored, and how healthy he's been and just consistent. It's going to be a sad day when he's gone, but I'm looking forward to another game against him tonight."

Stamkos is the 17th best goal-scorer in NHL history with 631, and faced Ovechkin numerous times as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning as the pair battled for Eastern Conference supremacy.

"Yeah, it was never fun playing against him," Stamkos continued. "Especially in his prime, he was just physically scary. Not only was he going to score, but he was going to run you over in the process. We'd never really seen that type of combination in the NHL before, not for a while, anyways. The majority of his prime years were in an era where scoring wasn't typically at its highest either, so it's just so impressive. Just the energy he brought to the game, too, with the celebrations and the goals and excitement. Scored some pretty nice goals against us early on and had some good playoff battles against him as well. Like I said, just a fun guy to watch and someone, obviously, for someone who likes to score goals like myself, was a treat to watch all these years."

Defenseman Roman Josi is in his 16th sreason in the NHL and expressed gratitude for being able to share the ice with Ovechkin at least two more times this season.

"Yeah, it's pretty amazing what he has done," Josi said. "It's very cool just being able to play against him so many times and just seeing what he does. It's unbelievable. Goal-scoring is one of the hardest things, and he makes it look so easy, and what he's done for the game and for the league. It's been pretty cool. Definitely grateful I've gotten to play against him that many times. It'll be fun to play him two more times this year."

Nashville coach Andrew Brunette shared the ice against Ovechkin as a player for seven seasons before transitioning to coaching and noted how difficult it was to play against the three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner.

"Obviously, the goals," Brunette said. "And they sometimes overshadow some of the other things he brings. I think his physicality, his will to win, kind of gets overshadowed by all the goals. You think of him in that spot, on the dot or at the top of the circle with his one-timers, but I think the other things kind of get lost. He's hard to handle physically. He's way faster than people think. I know he's slowing down with old age, but he can take over games with those things. The game's going to miss him. I won't miss coaching against him, but the game will miss him. I think he's been an ambassador to the game for a long time. Hockey's going to feel weird when he's gone."

Ovechkin takes the ice on the second-half of a back-to-back as the Predators host the Washington Capitals at 7 p.m. in Bridgestone Arena.

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