Alex Ovechkin‘s young sons, Sergei and Ilya, have fallen in love with hockey, and the Washington Capitals‘ superstar says it happened naturally.
Ovechkin spoke about his kids’ obsession with the sport during an appearance on Match TV’s “All on Match!” on Monday.
Per a video posted by X user @uggg_uggg and a translation by Google Translate:
Match TV host Dmitry Guberniev: “If they really start playing, what will Dad say to them?”
Alex Ovechkin: “They love hockey. We actually just set up a shooting area at home.”
Dmitry Guberniev: “In the apartment?”
Alex Ovechkin: “No, at the house. At the house.”
Dmitry Guberniev: “Oh, at the house. You mean inside or outside?”
Alex Ovechkin: “Just today, they went out to shoot for the first time — Grandma (Tatyana Ovechkina) could barely get them to leave so they could go to practice. That’s how much they really love hockey. They know all the players; they’re constantly playing hockey.
“Here in Washington, out on the street… Their godfather even gave them a tabletop hockey game, and they play it all the time. So, for them, it’s hockey 24/7.”
Dmitry Guberniev: “And your wife doesn’t mind all this? I mean, their mom?”
Alex Ovechkin: “No, she’s all for it. But, then again, we don’t push them. They ask on their own: ‘When is practice?’ Forcing them won’t lead to anything good.
“The older one, Seryozha, plays, and the younger one follows his lead. The younger one even says, ‘I want to be like Seryozha when I grow up.’
“Well, we’re a hockey family. What can you say?”
As Ovechkin’s children have grown older, they’ve become fixtures at Capitals games with their mom, Nastya, frequently giving their dad fist bumps through the glass when he scores or the Capitals win.
Ovechkin even admitted that his kids put pressure on him to re-sign and return to the Capitals, frequently barraging him with questions about his hockey future.
“I think in our lives [my wife] saw the kids every day,” Ovechkin said to the media after re-signing. “They asked me, ‘Are you coming back? Are you coming back?’ Then she saw me. I’m kind of, every time, like thinking about that, coming back to the Caps, and she’s like, ‘Okay.’”
Sergei and Ilya are frequent guests at Capitals practices, jumping onto the ice to work with other players or have fun.
Other players have also shown support for the brothers during their own youth hockey games. Last September, during Capitals training camp, Aliaksei Protas and Ilya Protas watched one of Sergei’s games and were caught going wild on social media after he scored a goal.
The same is true, even for Dad.
While the kids haven’t tested their mettle in the NHL (yet), they can already say they’ve played against Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin, who played Hallway Hockey with the pair at Ovechkin’s house in April.
During the offseason, the two Ovechkin children committed to training at the Red Machine Junior Academy, per Sports.ru. The elite Russian youth hockey program began in Moscow in 2020 as a joint project between the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and SKA’s academy.
“The goal is for the child to love hockey, rather than feel obligated to become a star,” says the Red Machine Junior website, and a Google Translation.
The program was founded by Roman Rotenberg, who holds several top positions in Russian hockey, including first vice-president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, general manager of the Russia national ice hockey team, member of the KHL’s board of directors, Deputy Chairman of the KHL board, Deputy Chairman of the SKA Hockey Club board of directors, and SKA CEO and vice-president.
Other Russian hockey stars, like Alexander Radulov, have sent their kids to the academy.
