ESPN Debuts OviCast As Capitals Alexander Closes In On History

Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is now at 889 career goals, just six away from being the NHL's all-time leading goal-scorer going into Thursday night's game on the road against the Minnesota Wild, which means that we are all on Ovi watch.

So, ESPN is launching something that is intended to make that as easy as possible.

Starting with Thursday's game, ESPN is launching an alternate broadcast to track Ovechkin as he closes in on history.

According to the company's website, this alternate broadcast will feature an isolated camera on Ovechkin with information related to his record chase at the bottom of the screen.

Cool, but it was a big swing and a miss not calling it "Ovech-Cam."

This alternate broadcast will be available for all remaining Caps games that are produced by ESPN. That's a little confusing since out of market NHL games are all available on ESPN+, but they're not necessarily produced by ESPN.

This means that of the team's 11 games left on the schedule, only five will get the OviCast treatment. These will include Thursday in Minnesota as well as April 10 against the Hurricanes, April 12 against the Blue Jackets, April 15 against the Islanders, and April 17 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I can't wait to see if the Great 8 breaks the record this season. It's going to be pretty close. I think he can handle 6 goals in 11 games pretty easily, but if not, the record will be broken in the first or second game of the 2025-26 season.

What a year it has been for Washington, and not just as far as Ovechkin is concerned. After sneaking into the playoffs last season, the Caps ran away with the Metropolitan Division and currently have a 13-point lead over the Carolina Hurricanes in second place.