Photo: AP

Alex Ovechkin, 30, started today’s press conference with a question: “Where’s my happy birthday?” Eventually, he was asked about his birthday presents.

“In Moscow, they gave me a ship,” Ovechkin said, as reported by NHL.com’s Katie Brown. “It’s [at] my country house right now. It’s kind of funny.”

A ship is an extravagant gift. A ship isn’t necessarily funny. A ship is usually stored in the sea, not at country houses. This is confusing.

“I didn’t see [it yet],” Ovechkin continued. “I have a picture. A picture is one thing but to see in in real life is maybe a different thing.”

Except Ovi’s talking about the sheep he got yesterday.

In Russian, there is just one sound for English’s short I and long EE an EA sounds.

So by ship he meant sheep.

(And I know all this because I was writing a story about it on Thursday but hadn’t finished it and now everyone’s cracking up and slapping their knees without me.)

Here’s the video from Olga Fedorova.

Ovechkin tells the interviewer, Rossiyana Markovskaya, that he enjoys gifts of stuffed toy sheep from his fans. (Ovechkin’s last name Ovechka means sheep.) The network thought it would be appropriate to present him with a live sheep because that’s not a reckless decision at all to make with the life of a barnyard animal and also because this is the year of the sheep in the Chinese calendar.

“Thanks,” Ovechkin says, as translated by Igor Kleyner. “I need to send her to my parents’ dacha [country house].”

Ovechkin has named the sheep Rossiya, which means Russia, which is kind of obvious.

Look at this beautiful nugget.

Caps twitter was confused.

Alex Ovechkin got a ship for his 30th birthday. Hasn't seen it in person yet because it's in Russia.

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) September 18, 2015

For his 30th birthday Alex Ovechkin said his native Moscow presented him with a ship. Or did he say sheep? Either way, it's probably big.

— Chuck Gormley (@CharlesAGormley) September 18, 2015

Apparently, Alex Ovechkin received a SHEEP for his birthday. No wonder he looked confused when I asked how big it is…

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) September 18, 2015

And then they just got silly.

So it was 🐑, not 🚣 for Ovechkin's birthday present. That's a baaaad mistake

— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) September 18, 2015

https://twitter.com/CapsYapp/status/644935144017674240

@ianoland he does appear to be in ship shape

— Ryan Deem (@Ryan_Deem) September 18, 2015

@ianoland @Ryan_Deem wool would you look at that! — Emily Wright (@EmilyCello) September 18, 2015

@EmilyCello @ianoland I’ll admit that it was shear luck that I came up with it

— Ryan Deem (@Ryan_Deem) September 18, 2015

@Ryan_Deem @ianoland not too baaaaad — Emily Wright (@EmilyCello) September 18, 2015

Additional reporting by Igor Kleyner. Illustration by Rachel Cohen.