Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov are en route to Washington DC. The two Capitals teammates jumped on a plane two days after the NHL and NHLPA finally came to an agreement on the NHL’s 2020-21 season. Capitals training camp is expected to start on January 3.
Ovi and Orly, who pulled their masks under their chin for the selfie, were joined on their flight by Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin. Nichushkin was a star player for KHL Traktor Chelyabinsk (Evgeny Kuznetsov’s KHL team) before making his way to the NHL with the Dallas Stars in 2013.
“Going to work in the morning,” Nichushkin wrote on the Instagram Story post as translated by Igor Kleyner.
Ovechkin and Orlov are among only a handful of Capitals players who have not returned to the District for the team’s optional skates. Big-name Capitals players like Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, John Carlson, and Ilya Samsonov have been skating at MedStar Capitals Iceplex since November.
But that doesn’t mean either player has been away from the rink. Ovechkin has been a regular at Dynamo Moscow practices and has participated with other NHL legends during Night Hockey League games.
Meanwhile, Orlov has been training with VIT Hockey in Moscow and working out with his personal trainer Sergey Gvozdev.
One of Orlov’s final tasks at home before flying back to America was to help run a hockey class for kids.
