For a while, the Caps have teased Alex Ovechkin’s appearance on the Today Show, set to occur the morning of January 20. They didn’t expect, however, for it to come less than 12 hours after Washington’s fifth straight defeat, their second blowout loss in a row. No time for rescheduling though.

While the rest of team flew back to Dulles after the game in New York last night, Ovi stayed behind for his 7:45 am hit with Carson Daly, which was accompanied by an Olympic-themed feature on the Great Eight.

Here’s the video (click here to view on mobile):

If you can’t watch, this the back-and-forth between Ovi and Daly:

Good to have you here, brother. Nice to see you. How are you feeling?

Not bad.

We’ve known the Olympics would be in Russia since 2007 and here we are less than three weeks. How excited are you?

Very excited. It’s a big honor for me and my country. I’m very proud.

Let’s walk through the Olympics. This is your third there. Two thousand six — I don’t have to tell you, you remember all this — Russia lost the bronze game; 2010, Russia loses to the home ice team in Canada, they win the gold. How badly do you and your teammates want to medal on home ice ?

I think everybody wants to win gold medals, especially playing hometown, home country, so i’m sure every hockey player, every man, every fan in Russia wants to win. But, you know, it’s going to be hard because every team have a strong team.

Talk about the boss we saw in the piece, your mom. You’ve got Olympics in your blood. She won two golds in basketball. Why does she sit alone?

She’s superstitious. Since I was probably 14, she never sit with my dad. It’s the kind of situation where you leave it alone.

Is that extra pressure? She’s an Olympian.

Yeah, she’s an Olympian, but, you know, we didn’t talk about it a lot. And it was different.

In light of some of the news this morning, Alex, not surprising to you, some tourists are nervous about going to Sochi. What do you want them to know about your home country?

I don’t think it’s going to be dangerous. I think as President Putin said, we have security, but i’m sure everything’s going to be fine and everybody’s going to have a good time.

Well, good luck to you. So good to see you. And good luck to the caps. Thank you very much.