Way back in June, after George McPhee took Tom Wilson 16th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Wilson revealed to the media that he was a big fan of Alex Ovechkin as a kid. “I had his jersey growing up,” the Toronto native said. “It’s gonna be really cool to meet him [in training camp].”

Photo credit: @RickyRakell93

Unfortunately, since the NHL and NHLPA are being a bunch of [redacted] [redacteds], the two will not meet this year. Wilson was re-assigned to his junior team last week and Ovechkin’s currently looking for work in Russia.

But that’s okay. Like I said a few days ago, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So on Monday, during a Plymouth Whalers day off, Wilson got the team together for what we here at RMNB call the pageview extravaganza — a game of shirtless soccer — one of Ovechkin’s signature workouts. Wilson (bottom left, shirtless) and Capitals fifth round draft pick Connor Carrick both played and fun was had by all.

And we thought we’d have nothing to post during the lockout.