You may have missed this from over the weekend, but Corey had a lengthy story in our TWT Sunday Magazine about the Washington Capitals and their four-to-five (depending on the day) Russian players.
The photos are by Peter Lockley; the cover image is from an improvised “photo booth” Peter put together at Kettler a few weeks ago; the players seemed to get a kick out of it.
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Here’s an excerpt from the story:
Ovechkin serves as the engine of the Capitals’ on-ice success and as the dynamic face of a once-beleaguered franchise turned vibrant. But he also plays a more subtle role in the Caps’ success: Ovechkin, with a little help from fellow superstar Sergei Fedorov, is the conduit between the team’s Russian and non-Russian players.
“Each team seems to have a couple of Czech guys or Slovakian or, like our team, some Russian guys,” assistant coach Dean Evason said. “They tend to stick together — like they go to dinners together and stuff — and some coaches don’t like that because it can get clique-y. As far as our guys, they’re great. They interact with everyone really well. I don’t know what happens on other teams, but I think it is a big credit to Alexander Ovechkin.”
Corey also filmed a few videos for the story which finally made their way to our Web site this morning.
In the first video, he talks about the locker room dynamic and the relationships the Russian players have with each other, the rest of their teammates and the league.
The second video talks about how the number of Russian players in the NHL has gone down in recent years, though you wouldn’t know it by following the Capitals, who have four regulars on the roster (and five if you count goalie Simeon Varlamov).
Enjoy … and stay tuned today an tomorrow for some more video from out at the rink, as well as a followup of sorts to the magazine story from Corey in Tuesday’s paper.
- John Taylor
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