Long Road Home

An NHL career can last anywhere from one single game to well over a thousand contests, and a career can also come to an end at any time and on any shift. No matter the length of a career, every player who has ever ascended to this level has done so with help and support of family members, billet families, youth hockey coaches and teammates and countless others who helped and nurtured them along the way.

For those players fortunate enough to stay in the League long enough to play in front of family and friends and others who have supported them along the way at any point, it's always a special experience. The Capitals' recently completed six-game road trip was bookended by games against Metro Division foes on the front and back ends of the journey, but in between the Caps made their seasonal foray to the northwestern part of the continent where two of Washington's elder statesmen - T.J. Oshie and Matt Irwin - were able to play in front of family and friends, one for the first time and one for the first time in a long time.
Oshie was born in Everett, Washington 36 years ago this month. A first-round pick (24th overall) of the St. Louis Blues in the 2006 NHL Draft, Oshie debuted in the NHL in 2009 and has certainly played a number of games with family and friends in attendance. But when the Caps took on the Kraken in Seattle on Dec. 1, Oshie was finally able to play his first NHL game in his home state of Washington, where he first fell in love with and began playing the game that has become his livelihood.
"I started at what we called back then Sno-King in Lynnwood, Washington and just going to open skate," Oshie recalls. "I remember the rink was so cold back then, and I would just come up because my face got too cold on the ice, and it's the only time I took any breaks. I remember those times, and I remember times at Olympic View Arena [in Mountlake Terrace, Wash.] not too far from here, a lot of really fun teams and a lot of friends on those teams, and my dad being on the bench and helping out coaching. So many memories of the early years of my career, not only in hockey, but in my dad's basketball tournaments out here in Seattle. He had a roller hockey rink that he turned from a warehouse into a pretty decent establishment. So just a lot of really great memories in this area of growing up and playing hockey in this area and especially memories of me and my dad."
Oshie's youthful memories of hockey in the great northwest also include one trip to the Kraken's home arena, now known as Climate Pledge Arena.

"I played [here] when this was actually Key Arena back in the day, as a goalie actually for my little brother's team," Oshie remembers. "Their goalie canceled at the last minute, so I played with my little brother's team at a [WHL Seattle] Thunderbirds game, between like the first and second periods and I haven't been here since then. So it's kind of cool and pretty crazy. I wish I would have been able to be here last year, but I think that everyone that came last year and missed me is coming back this year, so there will be some friendly faces after the match."
Last season, Oshie suffered an ankle injury when he blocked a shot in the waning moments of an Oct. 27, 2021 home game against Detroit. After missing 10 games with that injury, Oshie opted to return to action in a Nov. 18 game against the Sharks in San Jose. He skated more than 14 minutes and picked up an assist that night in his return to the lineup, but when the team plane landed in Seattle for the Caps' first-ever game against the Kraken - and first-ever game in Oshie's home state of Washington - John Carlson had to help the Caps winger down the steps of the plane. Oshie had reinjured the ankle and would not be able to achieve his dream of suiting up in his home state.
"It means a lot," he says, of finally getting to play in his home stats. "There's going to be a lot of people at the game today who were very influential on the beginning of my hockey journey, whether it's old teammates, old coaches, family members who have traveled all over the place to watch me play. They don't usually get a chance to come out to D.C. and watch me play, so this will be - for a lot of them - their first time seeing me live. It's going to be a great experience."
At the Caps' morning skate in Seattle, Oshie had a bevy of family and friends in attendance; he estimated needing somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35 passes for the game. He spent several minutes catching up with friends and family after the skate, and then sat down at his stall in the visiting locker room and - sporting a "Seattle Junior Hockey" hat - spoke to media about the experience.

"Everyone is out here working, and we're on the other side [of the country]," said Oshie. "I haven't seen some of them I guess since my dad's celebration of life a couple of summers ago. So it was nice to get here and I haven't seen my grandparents since then, either. So I drove up there to Arlington - which is probably about an hour from here - yesterday. So I was able to go see them, and it was a good day."
When Oshie made his NHL debut with St. Louis in 2009, he became just the eighth player from the state of Washington to suit up for an NHL game. Some 13 years later, Oshie has skated in 918 career NHL games, more than any other NHL player born in the state of Washington, a group that now includes 14 players.
"It's kind of crazy," says Oshie. "When I was younger, I was kind of a rink rat. I would watch the older kids and there were players that I really looked up to and I would think, 'Gosh, if I could just play like them one day.' So to be the games played leader from the state of Washington is kind of surreal to me.
"But I see what's going on here with the Kraken's Seattle Junior Hockey, which I think is fabulous for kids to learn the game, and especially for kids to start playing hockey. They're doing a great job. Hopefully the area keeps growing, and we can get that number from 14 to have it keep going up because it's such a great game.
"For how many players that were around here when I was playing, for the number to be that low is kind of surprising. So hopefully the love of the game keeps speaking in the area and kids have the opportunity to take a a path to the NHL, or at least try, and to learn a lot of life lessons and have a lot of fun with their teammates along the way."
At 37, Alex Ovechkin is the oldest member of the Capitals. Oshie is second oldest; he turns 36 on Dec. 23. Right behind those two is Irwin, who coincidentally celebrated his 35th birthday on Nov. 29, the day he got to play in front of the home folks in Vancouver for the first time in nearly four years.
"It's special every time you come back," said Irwin. "This is a team [the Canucks] I grew up watching, and they were my favorite team growing up. So every time you get to come back, play in front of friends and family and fans and just be kind of 'home,' it's a good feeling. And it's extra special today."

While Oshie was growing up in Everett and in the Seattle area, Irwin was growing up in Victoria, a city just to the northwest of Seattle, situated on the shores of Vancouver Island. Victoria has a rich hockey history; professional hockey on the west coast started simultaneously in Victoria and Vancouver shortly after the turn of the last century when brothers Lester (grandfather of Caps president Dick Patrick) and Frank Patrick built the first indoor, artificial ice rinks in North America and started the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1911. The 1925 Victoria Cougars are the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup.
The town of Victoria has produced 21 NHL players over the years, 50 percent more than the entire state of Washington. While Oshie was a first-round pick in the 2005 NHL Draft, Irwin was undrafted as a teenager, and he played in a Tier II Junior A league - the British Columbia Hockey League - where he skated three-plus seasons for the Nanaimo Clippers.
As a good two-way blueliner in that League, Irwin was able to land with a Division I NCAA program in the States, and he played two good seasons with U. Mass-Amherst, signing as a college free agent with the San Jose Sharks in March of 2010, following his sophomore season. He was 22 at the time.
Irwin then stepped into the AHL and excelled with San Jose's Worcester affiliate, notching double-digit goal totals and exceeding 30 points in each of his first two pro seasons. When the NHL was in lockout mode at the outset of the 2012-13 season, Irwin was skating in his third season with Worcester. When the lockout was finally settled in January of 2013, Irwin went to San Jose's abbreviated camp and cracked the roster, making his NHL debut at the age of 25 on Jan. 20 in Calgary.
"Looking back on that," says Irwin, "it probably benefited me to be playing games, obviously, while the guys who were in the NHL at the time were either overseas or waiting for the season to start. I got my opportunity in that camp [because of] a couple injuries. I had a good showing in what was a one-week long, shortened camp or whatever it was, 10 days. Next thing you know, I'm partnered with Dan Boyle on opening night. It's something I will never forget obviously, and it was just the start of what's been a lot of memories for me."
As a depth defenseman for the last several years of his career, Irwin has played in fewer than half the games played Oshie has totaled; the personable blueliner has logged 420 NHL contests. But the fact that he is still playing in the NHL and is still a valued member of the Caps organization tells you a lot about Irwin. With the Caps missing three of their top four defensemen at various stretches over the first third of the season, Irwin has suited up for 20 of the team's last 21 games, and he played in 16 straight at one point, his longest run of consecutive NHL games in five years.
"Just looking at his numbers, he's been really consistent," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "What makes Matty terrific - and I had him in Nashville as well - is the fact that if he's in the lineup, he gives you everything he's got every day. And if he's out of the lineup, he gives you everything he's got in practice every day. He comes in here and he goes about his business, and he has the respect of the coaches and his teammates for the ability to come in here and be a great teammate and play the game hard.
"He's come in during this stretch and we [coaches] just have not talked about him. Usually when you're talking about somebody, it's because they missed this or they didn't do that, and especially defensemen, because it stands out a little bit more. When a forward misses a shot in the offensive zone, yeah you might get frustrated, but it's not necessarily something that you want to show on video or something that needs to be corrected. But yet when it comes back to our end and defensemen get called into play - or forwards playing defense - those conversations usually can become a little bit louder because it's coming against your net, in scoring chances or goals against. And we've hardly had anything to say to Matty at all, other than he's playing really well and he's done a great job."
Because his road to the NHL was not a straight one, Irwin is rightfully proud of his career and his staying power. The life of a seventh defenseman is not an easy one. Last season, Irwin didn't see his first game action until Dec. 4, in Washington's 25th game of the season. By season's end, the Caps needed to deploy him in only 17 of their 82 games.
This season has been a different story. Irwin has played in two-thirds of Washington's games, already exceeding his games played total from 2021-22.
"It's something I take a lot of pride in," he said. "I'm 35 today, and the opportunity to play in the NHL at this age is pretty special. I don't feel like that 35-year-old; I feel like I'm young at heart. Every day is a good day in this League. It's nice to be playing and getting those [16] games in a row. You get in a bit of a rhythm, and that being said, I know my role and we all hope [Dmitry Orlov] gets healthy soon; we miss him dearly. And then it's my job to be ready when called upon. And that's just being prepared and having good practices, making myself ready with the things I do off the ice and on the ice, and using those as my preparation for games."
Irwin's disposition and his work ethic is appreciated by teammates and coaches alike, and he's one of the best in the business at one of the most difficult gigs in the business, which is why he is still an asset to a team and still playing and playing well in the NHL.
"He's worked to get here, and he's worked to stay here," says Laviolette. "He's done whatever he has had to do to carve out the career that he's had. I saw his dad up in the stands yesterday, and he's got probably pretty nieces and nephews up in the stands and you get to know the family a little bit. Such a great family. I got to know them from my time in Nashville, and now they're here with us again and you see them in the stands. And he's a reflection of his parents, and hard work and dedication and all those things that you can pick up from your parents. He's brought that to the table, and our guys really appreciate it."