A former VP of communications for the Washington Capitals discusses Alex Ovechkin entering the NHL as an "infectious, lovable character" whose rivalry with Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby evolved in three stages.
Alex Ovechkin has brought so much to the sport of hockey over the course of his legendary 21-year career.
Many know him as the best goal-scorer in NHL history, while others know him for his fun, bold personality on and off the ice.
On an episode of The Hockey News Big Show, the Washington Capitals' vice-president of communications from 2005 to 2011, Nate Ewell, talked about the way Ovechkin carried himself behind the scenes and what he was like around the team.
"The coolest thing when he came into the league was just how everybody embraced him," Ewell said. "It was a fun time in terms of coming back out of the lockout, and everybody's happy to have hockey back, but more than anything, I feel like people were happy to have this infectious, lovable character that joined the league.
"One of my favorite mementos from back then is a Hockey News cover, and it was Ovi, and it was something to the effect of 'Why the NHL loves Ovi,' and that lovability just kind of caught people."
Ewell also discussed Ovechkin’s run to finally getting his hands on the Stanley Cup and the evolution of the rivalry between him and Sidney Crosby. He described the rivalry as three different phases during the early part of their careers, their primes and the current stage of their careers.
“That first year, they got thrown into a lot of things together where we went to New York together and had to do a Sports Illustrated photo shoot, and they got along fine,” he said.
Ewell described it as not a friendship, but they were friendly and respectful to one another.
However, later on, “as both teams got better and into the playoffs, I do think that kind of friction was inevitable,” Ewell said. “They’re competing, and they’re ultimate competitors.
“It’s fun to see now where it’s evolved to much more friendship. I think it’s probably come back almost full circle in a way. Friendly, but even warmer than it was originally.”
It took some time before Ovechkin could finally hoist the Stanley Cup. After watching Crosby win three of them in 2009, 2016 and 2017, the Russian got his hands on the Cup in 2018.
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Leading up to that euphoric 2018 post-season for Ovechkin and the Capitals, there were plenty of doubtful narratives about Ovechkin’s chances at winning it all.
“(Winning a Stanley Cup) was more of something that people doubted in him and said that he couldn’t do,” Ewell said.
“Nobody expected anybody to break Gretzky’s record, but people weren’t saying, ‘this guy can’t do that,’ like they would say that he couldn’t lead a team to a Cup.”
Last season, Ovechkin completed the chase of Gretzky's all-time regular-season goals record of 894, breaking it against the New York Islanders in UBS Arena on April 6. Now, he's chasing down 900 goals, and if he goes even further, he could break Gretzky's record for most goals in the regular season and playoffs. Gretzky's at 1,016, while Ovechkin is 40 goals away at 976.
But when that winning moment arrived for Ovechkin, there was a sense of relief, said Ewell.
“As an Ovi fan… it was more rewarding to see the Cup in ’18 than to see the record broken last year.”
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