Alex Ovechkin had only one goal on Wednesday: survive his first skate in what is believed to be over a month.
“I just flew in from Turkey. The most important thing for me is that I don’t get killed today!” Ovechkin joked per Championat and a Google translation.
Taking the ice both without a beard or a visor, a smiling Ovechkin rocked a blue “Match of the Year” jersey with his signature number 8.
On the ice, he took part in a short training session ahead of the game. According to sports.ru’s Alexander Plekhanov, the practice featured stretching, some light shooting work and drills, a three-on-three scrimmage, and finally penalty shots.
“You could say it’s the All-Star Game,” Ovechkin told Plekhanov. “The fans come and enjoy themselves. And we enjoy ourselves, too. We don’t have too much time to spend with the guys. We communicate and enjoy the game and the event itself.”
After the half-hour skate, Ovechkin stuck around to sign some autographs for kids inside the locker room.
The event, organized by Artemi Panarin and Mikhail Sergachev, will pit Russian stars from the NHL against some of the KHL’s best. Puck drop between the two sides will take place on July 13 in Moscow at CSKA Arena. The proceeds from the event will go to charity, and the game raised over 10 million rubles ($127k) last year.
The full rosters for both teams were revealed on the event’s website.
NHL team: Alexander Ovechkin (Washington), Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota), Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin (Rangers), Mikhail Sergachev (Utah), Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov (Columbus), Dmitry Orlov, Andrei Svechnikov, and Alexander Nikishin (Carolina), Ilya Lyubushkin (Dallas), Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay), Vladislav Gavrikov and Andrei Kuzmenko (Los Angeles), Pavel Buchnevich (St. Louis), Artem Zub (Ottawa), Dmitry Kulikov and Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida), Vasily Podkolzin (Edmonton), Alexander Romanov (Islanders), and Ilya Kovalchuk
KHL team: Vadim Shipachev (Dynamo Minsk), Vladimir Tkachev, Damir Sharipzyanov, and Semyon Chistyakov (Avangard), Alexander Radulov (Lokomotiv), Nikolai Goldobin and Pavel Poryadin (Spartak), Nikita Nesterov (CSKA), Maxim Dorozhko (Vityaz), Artem Galimov, Nikita Lyamkin, and Dmitrij Jaškin (Ak Bars), Egor Yakovlev (Metallurg), Bogdan Konyushkov (Torpedo), and Vitaly Kravtsov (Traktor)
