Alex Ovechkin jumped back onto the ice on Saturday for his first game action since the Washington Capitals ended their unsuccessful 2022-23 campaign. The Caps missed the playoffs for just the fourth time in Ovechkin’s 18-season career, so The Great Eight was able to return home to Russia earlier than normal.

Ovi went back to his old Dynamo Moscow stomping grounds and played in a casual alumni tournament with other past Dynamo grads. His Caps ties were still obvious even in a Dynamo sweater as he rocked both his red, white, and blue gloves as well as his Capital One branded helmet.

The tournament, played with 20-minute games, was comprised of nine different alumni teams, including two teams from cross-town KHL team Spartak Moscow. Not all players in the games were pros like Ovechkin; several players who ended their careers in their junior days were also sprinkled among the bunch.

Ovi was joined in the action by former Capitals forward Andrei Nikolishin as well as former NHLers Maxim Afinogenov, Alexander Kharitonov, Sergei Vyshedkevich, and a host of other former pros with ties to Dynamo.

The Dynamo-86 team led by former player and current Dynamo general manager Alexei Sopin ended up the victors out of the nine participating teams. Ovechkin played on the Dynamo-85 team that was eliminated by Sopin’s team.

“It was very nice to meet Alexander the Great in such an informal setting, to play, to laugh, to remember the old days,” Sopin said post-tournament on Dynamo’s website and translated via Google Translate. “In a face-to-face meeting between teams born in 1985 and 1986, respectively, we managed to beat Ovechkin’s team. We joked that the difference between amateurs and the NHL was not so big. These are all jokes, but seriously, I would like to thank Sasha for taking the time to participate in such events, to meet those with whom he played in childhood.”

After all the games, Ovechkin took some time to pose for a photograph with the current pupils currently working their way through the Dynamo academy system.

Screenshot via Dynamo Moscow/Telegram