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The Washington Capitals’ 2024-25 season is fast approaching and many faces (old and new) have made their way back to MedStar Capitals Iceplex in preparation for the beginning of training camp at the end of the month. Among the faces not in attendance is TJ Oshie, whose playing status has yet to be determined after his lingering back injuries were revealed to be more troubling for the 37-year old right wing than initially known.
The longtime Capital recently made an appearance on the “Empty Netters” podcast and discussed a wide variety of topics, including his relationship with his late father, being trade to the Caps, the team’s memorable 2018 Stanley Cup run, and starting his innovative hockey gear company, Warroad.
“My agent calls me and tells me it looks like I’m being traded to Pittsburgh”, Oshie recalled, detailing the moment he found out that he would be dealt to Washington from the St. Louis Blues, “Then that fell through…and so that’s done, I’ve always wanted to be a Blue my entire life, wanted to retire as a Blue…I’m good, they’re going to give me another year.”
“Then I get a [30-second] call [from St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong], ‘…you’ve been traded to the Washington Capitals, Brian MacLellan will be giving you a call here shortly’, then just hangs up.”
Describing the trade to Washington, Oshie believes it altered his NHL career and dropped a teaser about what led to his re-signing with the Caps in the summer of 2017.
“Once I switched to that Capitals side, honestly it changed my career, probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“There’s definitely a story…I don’t want to get it out until I’m done playing, […] but before I re-signed, in my end of the year meeting, it went a certain way and it went pretty well. It’s probably one of the highlight stories of my career.”
The Capitals’ 2018 run to the Stanley Cup championship was the culmination of years of playoff disappointment, lifting the weight of an organization who had so often fallen short of expectations. In 24 postseason contests played, Oshie notched 21 Points (8G, 13A) playing a central role in the Caps’ fairytale run, which was capped by a celebration like no other.
“We kind of get this ‘everything’s gonna work out feeling if we just play this way: in seven games we’ll win. Because we’re gonna beat the [expletive] out of their defense, we’re gonna hit everything that moves, and our power play and other stuff’s gonna score us goals’”, Oshie recalled, when asked to describe the moment he knew the Capitals had a real chance to win the Cup.
“It was no longer like ‘Ovi [Alex Ovechkin] versus [Sidney] Crosby…we were so down to business”, said Oshie of the Caps’ overcoming the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games to advance to the Eastern Conference Final, “We were just a hundred percent, all-business. But when we beat Pitt, it was like, ‘we’re winning’”.
Describing a 48-hour period in which “felt like Superman”, Oshie fondly recalled the celebrations the team conducted alongside Capitals fans in the DMV.
“We just let the whole town party with us the whole time”, noting that the “keepers of the Cup” made mention that they had never seen a team involve the fans so frequently in their post-victory celebrations, “I had never seen a city like this, especially DC, historically is very divided with politics and all this other stuff. There was just so many people and it was awesome.”
One of the most emotional moments of that summer came just moments after the Caps lifted Lord Stanley for the first time, when Oshie embraced his father, Timothy or “Coach Osh”, who at the time was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. In 2021, Timothy Oshie passed away at the age of 56. His father’s passing had a profound effect on TJ, who memorably recorded a hat trick in his first game played following his father’s death.”
“Sports, in general, has been my way of coping with things, it has been my whole life”, a serious Oshie said of his father’s passing, “He passed…the day before the game. And I don’t know what it was, but after he passed, for whatever reason I was like ‘I gotta get back to the team, I got to go play’, I think he would’ve wanted me to.”
TJ, who wears his heart on his sleeve and is beloved by fans for his tough-as-nails style of play on the ice, admitted that playing in the game was extremely difficult.
“The game was super, super tough. I think I almost cried every single time I got to the bench…then after the third goal went in, and even seeing how much my teammates wanted to get me the puck…I only have a couple hat tricks in my career, for it to be that game, [I] immediately thought of Coach Osh, that he was there, that those things happen.”
Oshie, who attended the University of North Dakota and was drafted in the first round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the St. Louis Blues, put himself on the NHL radar during his days at Warroad High School in Warroad, Minnesota, where he captured two state titles, led all high school players in scoring his senior year, and spent his day with the Stanley Cup. In 2018, he co-founded “Warroad” a hockey apparel company that makes products tailored to ensure high-quality performance on and off the ice.
“There’s a lot of opportunity, and a lot of space that’s not being used in the hockey community and in the hockey world”, describing the beginning conversations about the brand. “I told them I was a little nervous about that [using the name Warroad] at first, because Warroad is just such a cool name and it’s just a super special place to me. Truly don’t think I would have played in the NHL if I hadn’t moved to Warroad…”
“I talked to my buddies and they agreed that if we took care of the youth hockey and helped out there, they would love the name…”
Oshie said that his bad experience and skin irritation with gear throughout his time playing hockey was a major factor in the development of Warroad gear used by members of both the Caps and around the league.
He also highlighted the company’s development of the neck guard was something that he emphasized after the death of a Connecticut high school hockey player in 2022 from a cut to neck from a skate blade.
“We need to protect these kids that don’t have paramedics all over the place. We have two ambulances, two paramedic teams in Washington. So, there’s a better chance you survive a terrible accident like that, but kids, there’s no one.”
To hear Oshie’s full interview, watch the video below:
