True Sportsmanship On Display At The End Of The Wild Caps Game

Last night, the Minnesota Wild welcomed the Washington Capitals to the Xcel Energy Center. The match-up was billed as two legends facing off one last time, with Alexander Ovechkin and Marc-Andre Fleury playing on opposing teams. While the Wild skated away with a 4-2 victory, it was what Ovechkin did after the game that had the sports world talking.

After the game, Ovechkin skated over to the visitors' tunnel, shouted at his teammate to get back on the ice and to line up, as the Capitals captain had each of the Capitals shake the hand of Fleury, a sign of mutual admiration and respect. It's also something that you don't see much anymore.

The video is pretty emotional to watch, especially if you are a fan of our guy, Fleury.

The announcers talked about who initiated the handshake line, with the idea being it was Ovechkin, who, over his long career, has battled Marc-Andre Fleury in both the regular and postseason.

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While all of the handshaking and hugs were going on, the Minnesota Wild's roster was on the ice, behind their blue line, tapping their sticks as a sign of respect to both Fleury as well as the Capitals players, including Ovechkin.

This is a great lesson in sportsmanship for our kids to see and learn from. Even though the Caps didn't win, they took the time to show respect to an opponent.

When was the last time you saw something like this happen in sports? I would liken it to the Mariano Rivera retirement from the Yankees years ago, where each team seemed to gift him something when the Yankees came to town that year.

Either way, a tap of the stick to the Caps and Ovechkin for what they did last night.