Despite growing up in the heart of Canadian hockey, Toronto native Dougie Hamilton‘s favorite player rocks the Capitals’ red instead of Leafs’ blue.
“[Alex] Ovechkin’s probably my favorite player,” Hamilton said in an interview with Fox Sports’ Mike Maniscalco.
Hamilton is known for his skills as an offensive-defenseman, and Ovechkin is the origin of that forward-thinking style. “As a kid, I think I was maybe thirteen, I played a year or two as forward,” Hamilton said. “That’s what I liked. I wanted to be Ovechkin. And now I’m trying to do it as a defenseman.”
Find out who inspired Dougie Hamilton on his road to the NHL. @MikeManiscalco has a sit down chat with the @NHLCanes defenseman.
WATCH | #TakeWarning pic.twitter.com/VAujsj7LTi
— FOX Sports Carolinas (@CanesOnFSCR) December 8, 2018
Hamilton went to the Carolina Hurricanes from the Calgary Flames in a surprising trade over the summer, and rumor had it that personality clashes were at the heart of Calgary’s decision. The biggest criticism was that Hamilton would rather go to museums than out drinking with his teammates.
That’s not a problem for new teammate Jacob Slavin, according to the Athletic’s Scott Burnside. “I’m up for doing those kind of things, too. So exactly, I can run with Dougie. I’ll go with him to the Smithsonian. Then you get guys going to museum instead of going to the bars as a team and who knows what could happen. Start a new trend.”
Hamilton’s emphasis on the importance of having fun is reminiscent of Ovechkin, and makes him a great fit with his new team. The Carolina Hurricanes, under the leadership of their new captain, former Capital Justin Williams, have been raising eyebrows all around the league with their many, many, many goal celebrations.
“You have to enjoy what you’re doing,” Hamilton said. “I think if you do that, if you enjoy it, then you’re going to do better at it…You have to love what you do and have fun doing it.”
Hamilton showed off his flossing skills when he came out as one of the three stars. Even though he says he “was a little awkward and gangly” growing up, he’s got good moves now.
Maybe Ovechkin should take a page out of Hamilton’s book–or museum guide–and show off his dance skills a little more too.
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