With this coming season marking the Washington Capitals’ 50th anniversary, one would naturally expect them to go all out to celebrate. If a new leak is anything to go by, then they have some nice surprises in store.
Recently, an Instagram account known as “95takengive,” an Indonesian jersey re-seller showed off images of a black “Screamin’ Eagle” jersey with Fanatics branding. As a reminder, Fanatics is the new manufacturer of NHL jerseys starting this season, so the presence of such branding indicates this jersey is new. According to Icethetics, this jersey is indeed in the Capitals’ plans for this season.
Washington fans will recognize that this jersey is pretty much identical to the one the team wore in the 2022-23 season as part of the second set of Reverse Retro jerseys, just without the branding associated with said program. In turn, that jersey was based on the ones the Capitals wore from 1995-2007, but with black as the primary color instead of white or blue.
“We are thrilled to unveil this year’s Capitals Reverse Retro jersey with adidas and the NHL and pay tribute to our first rebrand and such an important period in our team history,” said Monumental Sports & Entertainment Chief Marketing Officer Hunter Lochmann in 2022. “Following the success of our popular first Reverse Retro jersey in the red color scheme featuring the screaming eagle, we wanted to merge our original jerseys introduced in 1995 with the design.”
The Capitals moved away from these jerseys to a “modern” version of their classic red, white and blue jerseys in 2007, but not before a guy named Alex Ovechkin made his debut. Ovechkin spent his first two seasons in the blue, black and copper uniforms, racking up 198 points (98 goals, 100 assists) to kickstart his legendary career.
On Dec. 23, 2022, Ovechkin scored his 801st and 802nd career goals while wearing these jerseys against the Winnipeg Jets, surpassing Gordie Howe for the second-most goals in NHL history. Today, Ovechkin sits at 853 career goals, 42 away from passing Wayne Gretzky for the most ever.
If/when the Capitals officially announce these jerseys’ return, it will be very nice to see Ovechkin don them one more time in the twilight of his career.