When Alex Ovechkin scored his record-breaking 895th career goal, Washington Capitals players poured off the bench and mobbed the NHL’s new goals king as he belly-flopped onto the UBS Arena ice. Well, that is, all of them except for Martin Fehervary.
In footage of the goal, the 25-year-old Slovakian defenseman could be seen nonchalantly standing up to walk out the bench door with Trevor van Riemsdyk before turning around, grabbing his helmet, and slowly joining the morass of humanity in neutral ice.
Further proof comes from the NHL EDGE goal visualizer showing no. 42, the man nicknamed Marty Party, the last to be in the actual party. So what gives?
“Well, I was bleeding, my nose was almost broken,” Fehervary revealed on a Capitals social media video. “So, I was taking care of my nose, but I was super excited.”
The nose issue caused Fehervary to be careful as he approached the group celebrating but shortly after, he was one of the first to give Ovechkin a big hug individually.
According to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, Fehervary’s nose was initially mangled due to a hit he took against the Boston Bruins on April 1. He had started bleeding again after being hit by a New York Islanders player in the second period shotly before Ovechkin found the back of the net for the record-breaking goal. The nose has been unable to properly heal properly.
The nose is just the latest injury to Fehervary’s face this season. The 25-year-old Slovakian defenseman has sported cuts, bruises, a chipped tooth, a swollen nose, and everything in between after getting hit up high by opponents, taking inadvertent high sticks, and a deflected slap shot to the head.
Despite all of the trauma he’s suffered this year, Fehervary has featured in all 77 games the Capitals have played this season, making him one of just nine players on the team’s roster who can claim that feat.
So while he might have been last into the pig pile, he had very good reason.
