Alex Ovechkin, Entire Washington Capitals Team Signs a Deadguins Shirt (Photos)

September 22, 2013 10:19 pm

Sorry Penguin. (Photo credit: @ZackkShapp)

[Editor’s Note: Two years ago, we debuted a t-shirt parodying the Pittsburgh Penguins. Rachel Cohen did the illustration and Ian Oland turned it into a shirt. It has become one of our top sellers and even appeared on an episode of CRL. At the Caps Convention on Saturday, reader Zack S. endeavored to get his shirt signed by the entire Washington Capitals team. Zack was kind enough to summarize the players’ reactions for us. If you want your own shirt, you can buy it here in our t-shirt store.]

My dad and I were given VIP tickets the night before the convention by a friend who worked for Verizon. I was running around trying to find something to have the players sign and I thought how funny it would be if we got the players to sign a Deadguins shirt.

If you have never seen the VIP room at Caps Convention, it’s just a bunch of tables with some sandwiches and drinks put out, and most of the players come by to eat lunch or just hang out there between appearances downstairs. It’s a really cool setup because some of the guys will actually sit down and talk to you.

Most of the players were confused at first when I asked them to sign the shirt, thinking that I was asking them to sign actual Pittsburgh Penguins regalia, but most of them laughed once I told them what it was.

Reactions ranged from, “HELL YES!” by Jason Chimera to Peter Bondra shaking his head and saying, “Aw, come on.”

Jason Chimera actually wanted to be giving the shirt the finger in the picture, but thought better of it. He was definitely the guy with the most noticeable reaction.

Alex Ovechkin was understandably very tired of signing autographs. Everyone in the room wanted him to sign about ten different things and he had been signing and taking pictures all afternoon. His handlers asked us to give him 15 minutes so he could eat his lunch in peace. After that I went up, introduced myself, and told him what the shirt was. At first, he kinda smiled and gave a little chuckle. He signed the shirt right in the middle of the penguin and all of his Russian buddies/handlers (there were about four) started cracking up and shaking their heads at him. Ovi had a huge grin on his face. I asked him to take a quick picture and he held the shirt and did his classic Ovi half smiling/half brooding pose.

Other funny reactions include Backstrom, who still thought he was signing a Penguins shirt even after I told him what it was four times, “I really rather not sign this.” Brendan Witt tweeted that he wanted one of the shirts. All of the players had never seen it before and seemed to really enjoy it.

Also, completely unrelated, Mike Green sat at our table for about 20 minutes and had absolutely no idea what he was going to be cooking. When he left to go cook his grilled cheese we wished him good luck and he laughed and said, “Please don’t watch me.”