Photo credit: AllHockey.ru

After his tennis superstar girlfriend Maria Kirilenko won a bronze medal at the Olympics on August 5th, Alex Ovechkin tweeted to the world,”we take [the medal] to Moscow and make party!!” But that wasn’t the only reason Ovechkin returned to his home country.

A few days later, on August 10th, Ovechkin hosted a master class for children at the Yantar hockey rink in downtown Moscow (which coincidentally is only four miles away from Fedor’s house).

Before he hit the ice, Ovechkin– as well as Bojan Stricevic of Bauer Russia and Marcus Johnson of Bauer Europe– had some business to attend to. The three kicked off Bauer’s new competition, The Strongest Link, which rewards, in their words, “the invisible heroes of hockey.” Bauer is looking for touching stories about the European parents or coaches to whom, in the opinion of the youth hockey player, they owe much of their success.

The competition kicks off simultaneously in seven European countries, one of which being Russia. The winners of the competition will receive a trip to New York to see a Rangers game and a full year’s supply of hockey equipment.

“I really was like the other kids of my age,” Ovechkin, who signed a six-year deal with Bauer last September, told Dmitry Sheremetyev of AllHockey.ru. “My Coaches, Mom and Dad… everybody supported me and taught me. It’s because of my parents that I’ve achieved a lot. The most important thing was my father, who quit his job to work with me.”

Photo credit: AllHockey.ru

After the press conference concluded, Ovechkin finally jumped on the ice with three groups of thirty children who each got an hour with the Russian machine. Ovi taught fundamentals to the kids and helped them with their wrist shots. At one point, Ovi nonchalantly snapped a wrister from the red line which went right under the crossbar. The kids responded with a collective gasp of woahs.

No child went home empty-handed. Bauer presented the kids with helmets, gloves, and skates. Ovechkin also signed autographs and took photos with nearly everyone. I bet the memory of sharing the ice with one of the greatest hockey players in the world was a pretty nice takeaway too.

Once the class was over, Ovechkin packed up his things and returned to Washington Sunday afternoon.

Additional reporting by Fedor Fedin.

Photo credit: Bruce Bennett

Concussions have become the topic du jour around the NHL in the last few years, and for very good reason. Nearly a hundred cases of head trauma have been recorded just this season, and with Caps star Nicklas Backstrom missing forty games with concussion the issue has now hit DC  fans closer to home. Despite his highly physical style of play, Alex Ovechkin has managed to avoid concussion so far in his career. Still, he hasn’t been ignoring the epidemic, and for several months Ovechkin has been testing Bauer’s new trauma-preventative RE-AKT helmet. It’s now being worn by several other Bauer-sponsored NHL stars, but Ovechkin was the first to agree to test the RE-AKT — even before Backstrom’s incident with Rene Bourque.

We spoke to C.J. Ficek, Bauer’s Product Manager for Helmets to find out more about the helmet and Ovi’s decision to wear it.

The RE-AKT helmet, intended to to provide more comprehensive protection than traditional helmets, has been in development for two years, and goes on sale to the general public in May. Meanwhile, it’s still being validated by Ovechkin and more than a dozen NHLers including Claude Giroux of the Flyers.

“Two years ago, we looked at the industry and said, ‘We’re hearing about this a lot more, there’s got to be a way to produce a helmet that could better protect players,’” Ficek said. “So we set down that path of doing our homework, working a lot with the medical field, understanding head trauma and concussions and what goes into that, and then taking away all that information and trying to design a helmet that helped mitigate those risks.”

“One of those things we found out was about rotational forces — traditional hockey helmets have always been tested for more of a linear impact, a direct impact,” he continued. “We also found out from the medical field that the rotational aspect comes into play, and obviously hockey is a game of speed and motion, players are constantly twisting and turning and whatnot, getting hit from the side, it’s not always a direct impact.”

This is not the large, clunky variety of padded helmet that we’ve seen on other players – and sometimes in other sports – (Matt Bradley’s concussion-proof bucket was described as having “a CIA transmitter up there” by former Cap Brendan Morrison).  The RE-AKT is streamlined and lightweight, weighing less than many normal helmets. If you weren’t already aware that Ovechkin was wearing a special helmet, you wouldn’t have noticed.

Ovechkin has been involved with the RE-AKT’s development since the offeseason, when he began negotiating an endorsement deal with Bauer.

“He was at the office and we were in the early stages of the helmet, but we were able to show him and walk him and his agent through the helmet, and what it has to offer,” Ficek said. “He had a chance to try it on and he said, that’s the helmet I want.”

Ovechkin lays on the ice after colliding with Mike Knuble in practice (Photo credit: Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Though several of his teammates have been out of the lineup with head injuries, Ovechkin’s only missed games this season due to suspension, and briefly for a “lower-body” injury. Only a few weeks ago, Ovechkin was involved in a huge collision with teammate Mike Knuble during practice, but though the hit was of the type that has sidelined many players this season, Ovechkin appeared to suffer no ill effects.

“By no means is it foolproof, it doesn’t mean it’s concussion-proof either,” Ficek said. “It just means that we have a solution that can better-protect the players, and it helps manage the impacts better than some of the traditional helmets out there.”

Ficek says feedback on the helmet has initially been very good – Giroux continues to wear it, as well as some of his teammates such as Danny Briere and James van Riemsdyk. Steven Stamkos is also involved, though having a Richard Trophy season has gotten in the way. “Stamkos was an athlete that we spoke with who loves the helmet, but he’s also very superstitious,” Ficek said. “He told us up front ‘hey, I’m on a run right now scoring goals, I’m probably not going to change anything at this point.’ It’s one of those things that when he’s ready, the helmet will be there for him.”

As for Ovechkin’s part, Bauer hopes that having the high-profile Russian star aboard will encourage others to try — and buy — the helmet. “I think Alex obviously is one of the most dynamic players in the NHL, anything he does is always in the limelight,” said Ficek. “Definitely if it creates more exposure, maybe if some of the other athletes, some of the younger players coming into the league see that, they can at least try to understand what it has to offer.”

He added; “It’s a cultural shift, we’re seeing it all the way down at the youth level, we’re seeing more and more head injuries and concussions, at least diagnosed, versus the old days when it was ‘you got your bell rung, get back out there’. We’re starting to see a good push of awareness, which is what we want. At the end of the day it’s all about protecting the players, the kids as well as the NHL players.”

Phone interview by Ian Oland, additional reporting by Chris Gordon.

Ovi sports his new gear. Click to enlarge. (Photo credit: Bauer)

Photo credit: Chris Gordon

The world’s most famous hockey player has got some new gear. After dropping CCM over the summer, Alex Ovechkin unveiled a new six-year sponsorship with rival manufacturer Bauer, whose equipment Ovi used for the first three years of his career. This is Ovechkin’s second new sponsorship of the week after news of his long-term deal with superpower Nike for “lifestyle” and “performance” products surfaced on Thursday night.

“I think that CCM treat me well,” Ovechkin told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “They help me a lot and without that project I can’t score 65 goals. But in that kind of moment and that kind of situation right now, I feel that Bauer is company who I’m looking forward to work with. I played with this stick a couple years ago and I like it.”

The move doesn’t exactly come as a surprise. With Ovi’s ditching CCM — and therefore their parent company Reebok — that left Bauer as the only company with the cash to pickup a superstar endorsement.

The move was also teased on Bauer’s Web site over the holiday weekend, with their home page sporting a picture of skates with the Great Eight’s trademark yellow laces and the banner “This year will be different.”

And the biggest giveaway? Well that would be the fact that Ovechkin has been sporting Bauer gear for the last week during informal practices at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.

Ovi showed displeasure with CCM equipment at times — especially their frangible sticks — leading him to switch to Bauer twigs that were simply spray painted over before CCM’s corporate overlords put a stop to it.

“He’s very, very confident in his new equipment and we think that’s half the battle,” Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said of the switch. “It’s like a golfer with new clubs. He’s been trying his hardest to try to break a stick and so far they seem indestructible and that makes us all smile.”

Bauer and Ovechkin are also donating 108 full sets of youth hockey equipment to the Ketter Capitals Iceplex and Potomac Valley Amateur Hockey Association in the DC area, along another 108 sets to the Dynamo Hockey School in Moscow. In addition, the Caps presented the PVAHA with a donation of $25,000.

Ovi and Uncle Ted laugh after the press conference. (Photo credit: Chris Gordon)

Ovechkin will be featured in the company’s upcoming marketing campaign for their new Vapor APX stick, along with Bauer’s “growth strategy” for expanding their brand in Russia and other parts of eastern Europe.

“That sport is as iconic to that country as it is in other areas of the world where it’s really, really important,” Bauer President and CEO Kevin Davis said. “We know that there’s a tremendous amount of population of players out there and we know how much business that we do so, from a market share perspective, there’s lots of opportunity in that country.

Ovi is just the latest player added to Bauer’s list of star sponsorships which already includes his buddy Nicklas Backstrom plus Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, Henrik Lundqvist, Eric Staal, Mike Richards, and Ryan Kessler.

But there is a sad aspect to all this, and that is the end of the ridiculous decapitated head series of CCM commercials. We only hope that Bauer’s — and Nike’s — PR firms can come with an equally terrible idea that perfectly matches Ovechkin’s acting skills.

Photos

Ted Leonsis speaks to young hockey players in attendance. (All photos by Chris Gordon; click to enlarge)

Alex Ovechkin greats Bauer President and CEO Kevin Davis.

The Capitals’ new radio voice John Walton MCs the event.

Ted Leonsis, PVAHA President John Coleman, Alex Ovechkin, and George McPhee present a check for $25,000 to the PVAHA on behalf of the Capitals.

Ovechkin and Leonsis share a laugh.

Alex Ovechkin, Bauer President and CEO Kevin Davis, and George McPhee pose for a photo with the kids.