Alex Ovechkin jumped back out onto the ice with Alex Semin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Ilya Kovalchuk on Wednesday. And, no, it was not for a Washington Capitals’ alumni game.
The Great Eight took part in Danis Zaripov’s Ak Bars retirement game at Kazan’s Tatneft Arena where Zaripov’s number 25 jersey was raised to the rafters.
By Chris Cerullo 1 month ago
Alex Ovechkin is back in Russia this offseason and did an extensive interview with Russian soccer-based YouTube channel, It’s Football, Bro! on Thursday.
Among questions like whether he would play another friendly match with FC Dynamo Moscow this summer, Ovi was asked to choose five other hockey players to play with on his “symbolic all-time team”.
The Caps captain did not select long-time running mate Nicklas Backstrom, instead going with an all-Russian lineup. He did, however, name two former Capitals to his roster.
By Chris Cerullo 4 months ago
Alex Semin was a recent surprise guest at the Capitals-Penguins game on Thursday. The former Capital, who announced his retirement from hockey over the summer, got a big ovation from the crowd as a tribute video played above on the jumbotron.
Semin finished his career in Washington with the sixth most goals in franchise history (197) and remains the only Capitals player to hit the 40-goal mark in the Ovechkin era besides Ovi himself.
Semin’s appearance brought back memories for Capitals PA announcer Wes Johnson, who has been calling games for the team since they moved into Capital One Arena. Wes has seen a lot of great things during his time with the club, including a moment that happened around 16 years ago.
There’s a very special person in the house at Capital One Arena tonight.
Former Young Gun, Alex Semin, is at the Capitals-Penguins game and is sitting in the lower bowl.
By Ian Oland 8 months ago
One of my favorite Alex Ovechkin moments of all time didn’t happen on the ice. It happened inside the bowels of Capital One Arena when, as a much younger player, Ovechkin almost accidentally eliminated two of the Capitals’ four Young Guns from existence with one bad but funny decision.
Well over a decade ago, Ovechkin was caught on camera driving Mike Green around Capital One Arena in a utility cart.
“Me and Ovi usually go for a ride when we get out in soccer,” Green said then.
The video then shows Ovi going turbo speed down a ramp to try and make it past a metal gate that was rapidly closing.
“If you get close to it, it’ll go back up but, I mean, if it doesn’t, we’re in some serious trouble,” Green said.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has eight goals so far in the 2022-23 season to give him 788 in his career. That total leaves him just 107 tallies shy of overtaking Wayne Gretzky for first all-time in NHL history.
With Ovi closing in on the big record and breaking plenty of other records along the way, figures both past and present in his career have been getting asked about The Great Eight’s chase.
Ovi’s good buddy and former Caps winger Alex Semin is the latest to comment as he sat down with Pavel Lysenkov from the Russian outlet Match TV.
By Chris Cerullo 10 months ago
Alex Semin’s team defeated Team Datsyuk 10-9 in Semin’s farewell game from hockey on Thursday. Semin, 38, announced his retirement in May.
Semin’s farewell game, entitled The Match of World Hockey Stars – the Legendary Overtime, featured former Capitals teammates Alex Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov. Other notables included Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov, former Capital Andrei Nikolishin (1998 Stanley Cup Final team), and Dallas Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin. The proceeds from the ticket sales went to orphanages in the area as well as to the development of sled hockey in Krasnoyarsk.
Semin and Ovechkin both netted hat tricks in the victory. Arguably the most beautiful play came when Semin assisted on an Ovechkin goal by chipping a pass overtop the net that fell perfectly in the crease for an Ovechkin put back.
By Ian Oland 1 year ago
Earlier in the week, reports surfaced that former Capitals star Alex Semin was officially retiring from hockey. Semin planned to have a farewell game in his hometown of Krasnoyarsk.
While at the Dynamo Moscow soccer game Saturday, Ovechkin was asked if he would attend to support his former teammate.
Washington Capitals legend Alex Semin is reportedly hanging up his skates. Sport RBC announced the news while publishing about a farewell game the forward is hoping to hold over the summer.
Semin did not play at all during the 2021-22 KHL season. The 38-year-old works as an advisor to the director of the Krasnoyarsk hockey club Sokol in Russia’s VHL league, the second tier of hockey in the country.
By Chris Cerullo 1 year ago
Two of the greatest players in Capitals history reunited in Russia on Friday.
Alex Ovechkin took a selfie with his longtime running mate, Alex Semin, and posted it to his Instagram Story.
“With my brother @alexandersemin28,” wrote Ovi.
