Alex Ovechkin Announces Final NHL Season, Setting Up the Ultimate Farewell Tour

Alex Ovechkin is officially hanging up the skates after this season, turning the entire Washington Capitals schedule into a mandatory viewing farewell tour.

Frank Seravalli broke the news that the Great Eight is calling it a career. That means we have exactly one season left of watching a guy stand in the left circle and fire one-timers so hard they threaten the structural integrity of the net.

"Frank Seravalli reported the announcement directly from the Capitals."

The Capitals just split a pair of recent games, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 before dropping a 3-1 game to the Tampa Bay Lightning. But let us be honest, the actual standings are about to take a backseat to the history books. Every time Washington takes the ice, the only thing anyone will care about is the goal counter.

Chasing Wayne Gretzky and his all-time goal record has been the underlying plot of the NHL for years. Now there is a hard deadline. If you are holding a ticket to a Capitals game late in the season, you might be sitting on a mortgage payment depending on how close he gets to the magic number.

The player prop market for an Ovechkin anytime goal is going to be an absolute circus every single night. Oddsmakers are going to have to price in the fact that his teammates will actively refuse to shoot on an empty net just to feed him the puck.

The farewell tour officially hits home ice on October 7 when the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town. Getting one last chapter of the Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby rivalry to kick off the final ride is exactly the kind of script the league needed.