‘A lucky, crazy guy’

The young NHL star leans against the outside of the locker room door at the Washington Capitals practice facility in Ashburn, Va., talking to a reporter. Because of an adjacent skating rink, it is cold, meat-locker cold. Yet Alex Ovechkin wears nothing but a pair of towels. Not only that, but whenever a teammate opens the door from the inside, it slams into him. Ovechkin makes no effort to move. In fact, he enjoys this, because he then gets to slam the door back.

Asked why he does this, he immediately replies: “Because I’m crazy.”

Yeah, he’s crazy all right. Crazy like the best young player in the NHL if not the best player, period. Every other team would trade with the devil for this kind of crazy.

But Ovechkin, the 2005-06 rookie of the year, is probably exaggerating. Largely because of the physical, rough-and-tumble nature of the game, most hockey players are sort of nuts, anyway.

When told what Ovechkin said about himself, teammate and fellow Russian Dainius Zubrus said, “I wouldn’t call him crazy. There are guys who don’t use common sense. He’s a smart guy.”

Except maybe when it comes to his wardrobe, a frequent topic of conversation among the Caps.

“Where do I start?” Zubrus said.

How about the shredded jeans Ovechkin wore when he stood at the base of the mound, surrounded by several of his teammates, and threw out the first pitch (a strike) at a recent Nationals game?

“It’s not bad when you’re wearing half a jeans and your butt is hanging out,” Zubrus said. “But he should be paying half price, and he’s paying five times more than he should be.”

No doubt about it, “Ovie,” as everyone calls him, has adjusted to life in these United States. His performance last year — the 52 goals and 54 assists, the eye-popping skills and the beyond-his-years savvy, the molten competitiveness — speaks for itself. He is a natural, even though he continues to work hard to improve. Much of what he does cannot be learned nor otherwise acquired. It seems as if at some point when he was very young, the hockey gods got together and said, “Yeah, him.”

But nearly as impressive to those around Ovechkin is what he is doing off the ice.

He is a Russian first, make no mistake. But the Americanization of Ovie is occurring at a pace perhaps shocking and definitely amazing to all connected with the team. Just 21, still learning English, still a relative stranger in a strange land, Ovechkin has cast aside all trepidations and immersed himself in a new culture for the good of both himself and his team.

“He really embraces the lifestyle and wanting to be here and wanting to enjoy every moment,” said Caps general manager George McPhee, who took Ovechkin with the first pick of the 2004 amateur draft. “We could not envision not only how he’s embraced it, but how he took over. He really sets the tone, on the ice but also off the ice. If the best player sets the tone and is respectful off the ice, whether it’s for the team, the fans or the coaches, it makes a tremendous impact.”

Said his agent, Don Meehan: “Quite frankly, he surprised me in relation to his assimilating. I’ve been in this business 26 years and this truly is unique. He has a real passion for the game, for the players who play in this league and his passion extends to all of the other obligations of meeting the public and being part of the process of growing the game.”

Ovechkin put it this way: “I want to experience this world, and if I like this world, I will be happy.”

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