The Washington Capitals’ latest addition, 2023 first-round selection Ryan Leonard, made his NHL debut in the team’s 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. But it was his introduction to his new teammates the night before that made an immediate impression and initial headlines.
The 20-year-old college hockey star met a group of Caps players, including Alex Ovechkin and Jakob Chychrun, for sushi upon the team’s plane landing in Boston on Monday afternoon, just hours after signing his first professional contract in BC’s locker room.
Leonard’s introductory dinner turned into a fun night touring Boston College’s campus and later meeting up with his Eagles teammates at a local bar. The festivities were caught on video and posted online, quickly going viral.
Chychrun revealed more details about how the night developed Thursday on 106.7 The Fans’ Grant & Danny.
“We had a group of guys that took him out to dinner the first night, and he just kind of mentioned, ‘Hey, my teammates are dying to meet you guys and like Ovi,’ obviously,” Chychrun recounted. “So, we kind of left it up to the big man, and Ovi said he was down to go and meet his team.”
Chychrun said the Capitals and Eagles players get-together “worked out great,” adding they had the establishment, The Circle Tavern in Brighton, Massachusetts, to themselves for some time before Ovechkin’s celebrity presence was detected.
“The bar was empty, we were the only people in there so that was nice, just able to kind of mingle with his team and, you know, chat it up a bit,” he said. “I think by the end of the night word started to get out that Ovi was at the bar and people started to show up so that’s when we got out of there, and I think that’s when all the videos were happening so we left right after that but it was fun.”
Chychrun acknowledged some of those videos featured his new goal song, Juicy J’s “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” which he and Ovechkin were seen doing their pre-game shimmy shoulders dance to with some of Leonard’s teammates.
“They got the music going they wanted to hear, you know, the famous song that was going around so, yeah, it was a good night,” Chychrun said.
