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Capitals Announcer Joe Beninati Recaps Ovechkin's Record Goal
SportsGrid
Follow
4/7/2025
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🥇
Sports
Transcript
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00:00
I always love hooking up with Joe Beninati, the legendary voice of the Capitals.
00:05
And I got to tell you, Joe, like, I think I've talked to you about this before.
00:10
Like when I was I was living in L.A. when Gretzky did it.
00:13
And and I was just such a fan of Bob Miller's.
00:18
And like, you know, I got to call the thrashers for a season.
00:22
It meant the world to me to be able to do it.
00:24
And I'd never called a game before in my life.
00:26
But I love hockey so much that I was like, I walked away from a lot of money to do it.
00:31
And people said I was crazy.
00:32
I was stupid.
00:33
What are you doing?
00:34
You're walking away from national syndicate.
00:35
I said, I like hockey more than I like money.
00:37
I said, I just I like hockey more than money.
00:40
So you can take whatever you want.
00:42
Everyone said I was crazy and I was wild and I was over the top and everything.
00:47
I heard everything.
00:48
But all I know was I told you about Mike Lang, what he meant to me, Bob Miller, what he meant
00:53
to me, what you mean to me.
00:55
I'm a huge fan of yours.
00:57
It couldn't happen to greater guys than you and Bob Miller and Alex Ovechkin, guys like
01:05
that and Gretzky.
01:06
Now, I didn't know Wayne at the time.
01:09
You know, at the time, I was just doing a national show and I was a fan.
01:15
So when I heard Bob Miller say, there it is, I was like, and he was running on his skates.
01:22
I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen.
01:24
And then yesterday, when I saw him diving on the ice and sliding, I just thought it
01:29
was like, it was like reminiscing all over again, just the greatest moments of my life
01:35
watching it.
01:36
Even a guy that's been an arch rival of mine with the Penguins my entire life.
01:40
Scotty, you honor me when you put me in the same sentence with Mike Lang and Bob Miller.
01:47
And there's a reason why I love visiting with you on this show, and it's because I know
01:52
about your passion for the sport and for the play-by-play craft.
01:57
And to have everything fall just the way it did in the last three, four days, it's a sign
02:05
that the hockey gods wanted it to be that way, that it was meant to be, that it landed
02:11
on Monumental Sports Network and the live show, that Craig Laughlin was back from significant
02:17
heart surgery to be there in the booth with us.
02:20
It all lined up so perfectly, and the goals that he scored and that he has scored throughout
02:25
the last 20 years have been so breathtaking.
02:29
And so many of them are similar, one-time slapshots from the left circle.
02:34
So many of them are overpowering the way that 895 went in, that you pray for those moments
02:43
Selfishly, as an announcer, if this is going to be the one, let it be clean and clear.
02:50
Let me see the net bulge, let there be no doubt, let there be no goalie interference
02:54
or potential offside challenge.
02:57
And it lined up perfectly for us, and it was a magical environment.
03:01
I can't explain to you how good Friday night was when he tied the great one in D.C.
03:07
That was pretty much close to Stanley Cup final fever pitch, only happy.
03:13
There was no anxiety there.
03:15
There was no, are we going to win this, lose this?
03:18
It was all about an individual player's moment.
03:20
He scores in the first five minutes of the game and everybody is buzzing.
03:24
There were chances for him to get the record that night with a hat trick, which really
03:28
would have been storybook.
03:30
But the way it turned out there today, droves, and I mean, Capitals fans by the thousands
03:35
inside of the arena at UBS.
03:38
It was it was magical and it's something obviously that's once in a lifetime for me and and could
03:43
very well last a lifetime.
03:45
Well, you know, we were we were doing the show Friday night and we were predicting that
03:52
he would have a hattie.
03:54
I was I said he's going to have three tonight playing that team.
03:57
And then Carver Hodge said, no, he's going to do it at the horse track on Sunday.
04:01
He had said that all along.
04:05
I got to tell you, when he did it, I got I got choked up.
04:12
What was it like for you?
04:14
I don't even like I respect him so much as an enemy of my team.
04:21
But I respect I hated the Islanders, but I respected Mike Bossy so much.
04:26
And I respect this guy so much that I got all I got all flustered and my daughter was
04:32
like, are you crying?
04:33
I was like, get out, get out of the route.
04:36
But you have no idea what it means to someone that loves the game as much as you and I do.
04:42
What did it what did it do to your soul, to your body?
04:46
Did you get did you get weird or funky, Joe?
04:50
It's nerve wracking and teary eyed for sure.
04:55
Teary eyed for sure on Friday, without a doubt.
04:59
And every time the cameras landed on Alex's boys, Sergei and Ilya.
05:05
Every time the camera landed on Alex's mom, Tatiana, wife Nastia.
05:11
You can't help but think of Mikhail, Alex's dad, who gave me more than a few big bear
05:19
hugs over the last two decades while his son was doing such incredible work on the ice
05:25
and who loved the game the way we all do.
05:30
This is a crowning achievement.
05:32
It's an individual achievement.
05:33
Alex is all about team.
05:35
I think at the end, it's so humbling and you want to there's there's a 23 minute, 24 minute
05:41
ceremony and and all the while I know the the competitor and Ovechkin is saying, can
05:46
we please get back to the game?
05:48
He appreciated what the Islanders did for him yesterday.
05:52
I heard Sidney Crosby's comments, a good 90 second to two minute rip of comments.
05:59
The mutual respect that he shared with the grade eight and those two kids, those two
06:03
guys who are soon to be pushing 40 years old.
06:06
They came in at a rough time in 2005 and six.
06:10
They had a lot of responsibilities put on their shoulders and they've overachieved.
06:14
They've been world class ambassadors, Sid and Alex, and they they know what each other
06:20
has gone through and to see and listen to Sidney react and Marvel at what Alex has done.
06:26
It's truly it's close to superhuman 895 goals.
06:31
It's crazy.
06:32
So let me ask you twofold because he's going to keep going and they have a shot to win
06:37
the Stanley Cup again.
06:39
I know you think they're good enough and I can't even believe the similarities between
06:43
your boy Laughlin and I, we both had open heart surgery.
06:47
I had both of my valves explode off of my heart.
06:50
I saw him in his cardiac unit and I know what he's been through.
06:55
What was it like for you to have him out of the booth going through that as your friend?
07:01
And I certainly hope you'll send my regards and tell him I know what it's like to be in
07:06
that bed and to be in that situation is very scary.
07:09
I went through it.
07:11
I promise you I'll give him those words and and bless you both.
07:14
I mean the last well he had the surgery locker did on February 4th and Alan May did a fabulous
07:22
job jumping in.
07:24
We throw him into the deep end.
07:26
He did more than just swim.
07:28
He survived and really thrived in it.
07:30
And all the while Alan will be the first to tell you he wanted Craig to be back by the
07:35
time Ovi accomplished this achievement and it's amazing.
07:42
There were so many moments from yesterday that will be burned into these retinas for
07:46
the rest of my life.
07:47
But the one that stood out the most was the big bear hug Alex gave Locker after the game
07:53
outside of the team dressing room.
07:56
Locker said wait for me wait for me.
07:58
Alex waited for him to do it and then did it when he was back on his watch.
08:03
Again there are so many things that are fairy tales and storybooks about this but that to
08:08
me meant the world because I know what Locker has been through.
08:12
You do personally.
08:13
Yeah.
08:14
And there are people out there who know how much goes into coming back from those types
08:19
of surgeries.
08:20
And nowadays whatever it is that the doctors and the cardiac care teams do they do it so
08:25
very very well.
08:26
You wouldn't know you wouldn't know Locker had an issue beforehand and you wouldn't know
08:31
in the five to six games that we've done since he's himself.
08:37
I couldn't be more happy.
08:38
Yeah.
08:39
It's just crazy.
08:40
God bless him.
08:41
I'm so happy that he made it through it.
08:44
They saved my life.
08:45
I know I wear a heart monitor on my wrist that says 30 minutes more.
08:50
That's my nickname.
08:51
And that guy saved my life and I'll never forget it.
08:53
He acted like he was making a ham sandwich but he cut my chest and saved my life.
09:00
Tell a lock.
09:01
I love him.
09:02
Congrats.
09:03
Great job on the call Joe.
09:04
You're the best.
09:05
I'm super proud of you.
09:06
Go win another Stanley Cup.
09:07
All right.
09:08
That'd be fun.
09:09
Thank you Scotty for sharing time today.
09:10
I appreciate it.
Recommended
9:14
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