TJ Oshie may scream in Alex Ovechkin’s face before games, but according to the Capitals right wing, it’s coming from a place of love and respect.
“Every day I see him at the rink, I have the biggest smile on my face,” Oshie said recently to the Rink Live Podcast, “because I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
While Ovechkin is one of the greatest players of all time, he does not take himself too seriously, according to Oshie, his teammate of the last seven seasons. That includes a lot of enthusiastic and off-key singing.
“For as good as he is and what he’s accomplished and what he might accomplish, he is just a big kid,” Oshie said. “Just a great teammate. Kind of a joker. He’s not shy sing Britney Spears on the back of the bus. He’s just a big goof.
“He fires up the locker room,” he continued. “He’s a good leader. He really takes care of the guys. Obviously, if anyone’s voice carries a lot of weight, it’s his. If the players need something, he’s the first one to speak up and go to whatever person he has to talk to get a day off or get the guys together here or get the team to get us a meal in this city or whatever it is. It’s really been a treat to play with him.”
Dmitry Orlov, another one of Ovechkin’s close friends and teammates, was recently asked about Ovechkin’s singing after the two participated in Artemi Panarin’s charity hockey game.
“I don’t sing like that,” Orlov said as translated by RMNB’s Igor Kleyner. “So, probably, Sasha. Since he constantly pops up on (viral) videos, he probably sings better. I saw that the clip where he sings ‘The Performance Is Over’ with Sergei Fedotov became a hit. It’s time for them to go on ‘The Voice.'”
Orlov was referencing Ovechkin singing the Polina Gagarina song at his birthday last week. Ovechkin, seemingly in a competition to scream louder than Fedotov beside him, misses nearly every note.
While Ovechkin can be silly off of the ice, he’s serious and determined on it. There his fun-loving nature comes out in other ways.
“On the ice, I’ve never seen anyone who loves to score goals like this guy or just loves the team to score goals,” Oshie said. “There’s so many times, when I’ve scored, he has come and hugged me so hard I think I need the medical guys to come take a look at my head. Maybe come check out how this shoulder might be doing because there might be a slight A/C separation up there. He’s just one of a kind.
“I absolutely love that guy. He’s like a brother to me now after all the stuff we’ve been through.”
