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The Noon Number: Elder Millennials

Photo courtesy of the Washington Capitals

3 – Number of days remaining until the start of the Washington Capitals’ 50th season. But it’s also…

…the number of players who have played 1000+ games with the Capitals. That trio, of course, consists of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and John Carlson, who are familiar faces atop most franchise leaderboards at this point and will go down as three of the greatest to play for the team.

Ovechkin crossed the 1000-game mark back on April 1, 2018 – fittingly just a few months before he would go on to capture the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. He now leads the pack with 1,426 games played (and counting). In second is Nicklas Backstrom, who hit the milestone on April 15, 2021, and now sits at 1,105…which sadly may be it for the great Swede. And in third is John Carlson, the all-time leader in games played for the franchise by a defenseman with 1,009 games, achieving his milestone back on March 30 of this year.

As they’ve racked up games played total, they’ve also racked up games together, and Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin also achieved the rare feat of playing 1000 games side by side back in 2022 – becoming just the ninth set of teammates to do so.

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