Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin had a busy day supporting home-town sporting events while back in Moscow today. In the evening, he attended the Russian League semifinal match between CSKA and Lokomotiv-Kuban, where he sported a hat commemorating the Moscow club’s 2016 EuroLeague championship win.
A few hours earlier, while planting trees during a ceremony outside the newly renovated Luzhniki Stadium, which will host several 2018 FIFA World Cup games including the final, Ovechkin spoke with reporters on matters ranging from the Olympics to his post-game plans had the Caps gone all the way.
Regarding his well-documented playoff injuries, Ovechkin told Sport-Express’s Sergei Astakhov and Yevgeny Belousov. that he was still healing, predicting it might take “another week or so.”
“But I’m already feeling a lot better,” continued Ovechkin. “I’ll have a medical checkup in Washington, [but] I’m going to recuperate in Moscow.”
Asked whether he intended to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics, Ovechkin was tight-lipped, and somewhat irritated.
“Guys, I’m tired of answering that question. Let’s just wait and see, and make it so we can go, rather than creating conflicts.”
Then things got serious.
Sport-Express: Did you see how [team captain Denis Glushakov] celebrated [FC Spartak-Moscow’s Russian Premier League win] at the stadium by climbing out onto the roof with a a jar of Russian moonshine in his hand?
Alex Ovechkin: No.
Sport-Express: Would something like that be possible in Washington?
Alex Ovechkin: Well, if we had won we might not have been drinking moonshine at the [Verizon Center].
Sport-Express: You would have stormed the Capitol?
Alex Ovechkin: Absolutely!
Photo Credit: Aleksandr Safonov
