Brooks Laich and the Capitals reflect on Alex Ovechkin's physicality.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Brooks Laich vividly remembers the moment when he and Alex Ovechkin faced off against each other in the World Championships in 2013.
Not because he was playing against a longtime friend, teammate and legend, but because finally, he'd felt the full force of an Alex Ovechkin hit.
"I remember running into him and that game and being like, 'Damn, is he solid,'" Laich recalled on the latest episode of The Hockey News' That's DC Hockey podcast. "You bump into him at practice, but never at full speed... I've never experienced the brunt of an Alex Ovechkin full-speed, full-intensity body (check). I was like, 'Ah, I get it now, this guy is solid.'"
Ovechkin sits in third place on the NHL's all-time hits list with 3,877, trailing only Cal Clutterbuck (4,029) and Matt Martin (3,936). No active players has more hits than the 40-year-old left wing.
"He's 240 pounds, he's got 20 pounds on some of the biggest defensemen in the NHL, and he's just a bear," Laich, who was Ovechkin's teammate for 11 years, said. "I just saw of him dispose of some of the biggest defenders in the game at will for years. But I hadnt personally felt it. It's a different thing when you feel it.
It's part of Ovechkin's game and unique style that's helped him become one of the most dynamic power forwards to play the game, along with the greatest goal scorer of all time.
"He hits hard, he hits heavy. Most guys that have had the longevity and the success in their careers, they don’t play that way. He plays every shift extremely hard,” Tom Wilson said back in February. “He can run guys over. That’s why I loved him as a kid, that’s why he was one of my favorite players. He’d score, pass, run over guys, defend himself. I’ve never had to pull a fly off Ovi’s back. He can do it himself."
Brandon Duhaime agreed with Laich and Wilson, especially after being one of the players who has been on the other end of an Ovechkin hit in his career.
"Ovi's built like a train," he quipped the same day.
Ovechkin is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and is currently in Russia, where he will continue to ponder next steps and make a decision on whether or not to return to the Capitals.
If he does come back for another year, he said he'll work with longtime trainer Pavel Burlachenko to prepare the right way so he can continue to keep up with the speed of the league, but at the same time, Ovi is still Ovi, and the hits will more than certainly keep coming.