Ovechkin completes full practice, putting Friday's Caps preseason game in play
Alex Ovechkin was a full participant at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Thursday after missing several sessions with a lower-body injury, giving Washington a cautious reason for optimism nine days before the regular season opener.
In brief
Ovechkin completes full practice, putting Friday's Caps preseason game in play
Thursday morning at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, Alex Ovechkin did something he hadn't managed all week: he stayed on the ice for the whole practice.
Ovechkin was a full participant for the Washington Capitals at practice on Thursday, their captain continuing his recovery from a lower-body injury. That sounds routine. It was anything but. For a franchise opening the season on Oct. 2 against the Carolina Hurricanes, the sight of the 41-year-old going the distance in a training camp skate matters considerably.
Ovechkin, who had missed practice on Sunday and Monday, previously skated with the team on Wednesday but left the ice around 15 minutes into the session. On Thursday, he was a full participant for the entirety of the skate, taking reps with his regular line alongside Dylan Strome and Ryan Leonard.
Head coach Spencer Carbery liked what he saw. "It was a good sign," Carbery said. "Participated fully, didn't have to take any portions off, so that's a good step." He stopped well short of confirming Ovechkin will dress for tonight's home preseason game against Boston. "I'm not going to definitively say one way or another," Carbery said.
Carbery said there's a chance Ovechkin could play Friday against the Boston Bruins, but he will talk to athletic trainer Jason Serbus to determine the exact plan. That decision point matters because the Caps have a pair of weekend exhibition matches: the Bruins in town Friday night for the lone Capital One Arena preseason game, followed by a trip to Philadelphia on Saturday against the Flyers.
Ovechkin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, less than two weeks before the Washington Capitals' season opener. Ovechkin, 41, is back for his 22nd NHL season. The combination of age and injury history around training camp had fans understandably edgy. This is the third straight September he has started camp nursing something. He missed most of last September with a lower-body injury and still dressed for two exhibition games.
The parallel to 2025 is only somewhat reassuring. Ovechkin similarly missed the first four games of the preseason a year ago because of a lower-body injury before returning for the final two. He went on to play all 82 regular-season games and led the Capitals with 32 goals and 64 points. So the template exists for him to shake it off and open the year healthy.
Carbery reinforced that point. "I'm not worried," the coach said. "At this point in his career, I'm pretty sure he knows what he needs to do to get up to speed for a season opener."
Still, context matters here. With training camp approximately a week shorter and the preseason shortened to four games as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, there is less time for Ovechkin to prepare for the opener. Fewer reps, fewer chances to knock the rust off before the puck drops for real. The Washington Capitals are exactly 10 days away from their 2026-27 regular-season opener against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. That is not the kind of opponent you want your captain seeing for the first time at game speed.
Ovechkin enters the year with 929 career goals, still the most in NHL history. He is headed into his 22nd and potentially final NHL season. The Capitals have built around that reality all summer. Washington enters the 2026-27 campaign expecting to return to the postseason behind a talented group including Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, and Jakob Chychrun. General manager Chris Patrick spent the offseason acquiring pieces for a playoff run, not a rebuild. Ovechkin walking into Carolina at full health on Oct. 2 is foundational to any of that working.
Ovechkin addressed reporters earlier in camp with characteristic bluntness. "I'm pretty sure everybody understands that we have a very good opportunity to be in the playoffs and make some noise out there," he said. "The season has not started yet and we have to be ready for Game 1. If you look at last year we missed by one point or two points, right? So you have to be ready right away because every point is very important for us and in the end it's going to cost you."
Washington missed the playoffs last season on the thinnest of margins. The appetite in the locker room and in the front office to get back is real. Losing Ovechkin for any stretch of the regular season would reshape the entire trajectory of the year before it really gets started.
Thursday's practice removed the most immediate scare. After missing a few days of training camp practices, Ovechkin returned to the ice for Thursday's session at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. He made it through the entire practice with no issues, but Carbery was noncommittal on Ovechkin's possible participation in either of Washington's final two exhibition tune-ups.
Fans at Capital One Arena tonight will find out soon enough whether No. 8 is in the lineup.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
