As the Capitals took the ice at Bridgestone Arena for their morning skate Tuesday, the Capitals’ director of social media gave Alex Ovechkin his phone. This ended up being a very good decision.
Ovechkin conducted an Instagram Live session, where he skated up to almost every player on the active roster and unnerved them with his Oviness. It was quality content.
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Video: @Capitals
Here are my favorite moments.
- 0:10 – Ovechkin first approaches Tom Wilson. “What’s going on?” Wilson asks. “Real life,” Ovechkin correctly replies.
- 0:29 – Next, Ovechkin skates by Devo and puts the phone in the face of Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Braden Holtby. The Holtbeast has a big grin. “Say hi to the fans live on Instagram,” requests Ovechkin. In his quietest, monotone voice, Holtby replies “Hi, fans.” The players on the bench, consisting of Taylor Chorney, Aaron Ness, Nathan Walker and Christian Djoos, crack up.
- 0:44 – Ovechkin finds Nicklas Backstrom sitting on top of the boards at the bench. “There he is,” Ovechkin says in awe. But Backstrom skates away the second Ovi wants to film him.
- 0:54 – Skating into the offensive zone, Ovechkin finds “Snarls” the “BEST PLAYER. ON. THE. PLANET.” Orlov, laughing uncontrollably, makes eye contact with another teammate out of a frame and does a head nod towards Ovechkin as if to insinuate “this guy is insane please someone get me out of here.”
- 1:04 – Oh look, it’s Evgeny Kuznetsov. And now he’s yelling.
- 1:50 – Ovechkin, after some prodding, decides to turn the camera on himself where he gives us his customary gap-toothed smile.
- 2:30 – We learn that Alex Chiasson’s nickname is Chaser, which is confusing because that’s harder to say than his first name of Alex and what’s the point of nicknames if they’re longer and oh no now I’m triggered. Also, Ovi calls Chiasson, “Chase the Ace.”
- 3:13 – Ovi takes a fan question about Tom Wilson’s fighting habits. But the Russian machine had a bold prediction: Willy “the goal scorer” would get a goal Tuesday night against the Preds. He did not.
Thus concludes Ovechkin’s brave foray into live streaming. This team never disappoints.
