After Thursday’s game, the Washington Capitals announced that Alex Ovechkin would sit out this year’s All-Star Game due to a nagging lower-body injury. Barry Trotz said Ovechkin had been dealing with the issue since mid-November. Ovechkin joked that he aggravated the injury while clearing snow from his house.
If Ovechkin had been dealing with an injury, Ovechkin’s father Mikhail never knew about it.
“I don’t know anything [about the injury],” Mikhail said to Sovetsky Sport’s Vladimir Ponomarenko Friday. “Even though I just left Washington on the 18th. Just before the snowstorm. I did not hear anything about any injury from Sasha. Although he is that kind of person. He will not complain as long as he can tolerate it.”
Ovechkin was suspended one game by the NHL for choosing to not attend the league’s premiere event. Evgeny Kuznetsov took his place.
Meanwhile, Mikhail shared the backstory behind his son’s now very famous snow blower. Last week during the DC Blizzard, WUSA9 interviewed Ovechkin at a gas station while he got fuel for the contraption. The next day Ovechkin posted a video snow blowing his driveway.
“I was the one who bought that snow machine for him,” Mikhail said. “When we had a big snow there for the first time. It’s light and easy to work with. Just walk with it, and the snow flies through the pipe.”
Mikhail explained what inspired him to buy it.
“Big snowstorms are rare [in DC], but when it happens…” Mikhail said. “About five years ago I stepped out into the sunroom. It was a bit dark. There was snow up to my throat, above the windows. What are you going to do? Sasha was still asleep, but he needed to go to practice soon. I somehow climbed outside and saw all the neighbors with those snow machines. And a neighbor, she was from Chelyabinsk, offered to help. I only had a shovel. I barely managed to clear the stoop, and then all the neighbors pitched in and cleared our whole yard with their machines. Then Sasha woke up and went to his practice. That’s when I bought that snow machine.”
Translation by Igor Kleyner
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