Whether one voted for the NHL All-Star Game captains or not, Capitals Nation should be happy: Alex Ovechkin has been elected captain for the Metropolitan Division!

After several weeks of submissions, the NHL has announced that Ovechkin, former Capital and current Florida Panther Jaromir Jagr, Chicago Blackhawk Patrick Kane, and Arizona’s John Scott have been voted the captains for their respective divisions. While it will be interesting to see how the Scott situation plays out, Ovechkin will be participating in his seventh All-Star Game and in his 11-year career, he’s proven to be one of the NHL’s premier stars.

For those who don’t know the new All-Star Game format and voting process, here it is:

FORMAT
– Instead of one game with two different teams, there will be three 20-minute contests, with four teams based on the four divisions (Metropolitan, Pacific, Atlantic, Central).
– the Atlantic will face the Metropolitan and the Central will square off with the Pacific
– the winners of the two games will meet in an All-Star Game Final
– Each game will be three-on-three and if tied, will go to a three-round shootout and extra rounds of needed.  There is no standard overtime

VOTING
-Instead of voting for every player, fans will vote for each division’s captain.
-The NHL’s Hockey Operations will select the rest of the teams.

So which teammates could be joining The Great Eight? The two players that come to mind are Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby. As for Nicklas Backstrom, well, he’s been snubbed nine times in his nine-year career. Fingers crossed, as he certainly deserves to be selected.