Ovechkin and three other Russian hockey players from his team were placed on a temporary ban list earlier this month and Washington Capitals was fined $100,000 for violations of the National Hockey League (NHL) COVID-19 rules.
The Saturday game against the Boston Bruins was Ovechkin’s first since the pause he had to take because of COVID-19 quarantine requirements. The captain of Washington Capitals scored the winning goal 28 seconds into overtime.
Ovechkin’s teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov remain to be cleared off the NHL’s coronavirus protocol list. Dmitry Orlov has already been cleared, but was not in the lineup on Saturday.
The four Russian players from the Washington Capitals were sidelined after they met together in the same hotel room in Pittsburgh during a road trip at the start of the season. This required them to spend at least 10 days in quarantine as Samsonov tested positive for COVID-19.