OPINION:
Alex Ovechkin escaped his nightmare by spending some of the NHL’s Olympic hockey break with family and friends in Dubai, according to The Hockey News.
Upon his return for Washington Capitals workouts, the escape appeared to have been successful.
“The break was great,” Ovechkin told reporters. “We are in that position that we have to make a push and we have to play our game, we have to play smart and collect the points if we want to be in playoffs.”
The break would have been greater if he had been on the ice thousands of miles away, trying once again to win a gold medal for Russia — a passion that has turned into a painful failure.
Ovechkin and other Russian players were sidelined for the Milan Games on orders from the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation, barred since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
When Ovechkin was asked if he had watched any of the Olympics, he answered no and was finished talking about it.
This was no leisure break for Ovechkin. It was another missed opportunity to change what has been a disastrous Olympic narrative over Ovechkin’s career.
In three Olympic appearances — 2006, 2010 and 2014 — Ovechkin has scored eight goals but no medals. His worst performance came in the most important games of his career: the 2014 Sochi Olympics, when Ovechkin scored just one goal in five games in an embarrassing early exit for the Russian team in their homeland.
The loss fell on the shoulders of Ovechkin, the country’s hockey icon. The Russian coach put it there.
“Well, it’s difficult to explain why we didn’t score, especially the players who usually score a lot in their games, especially Alexander Ovechkin, who scored over 40 goals. I cannot explain so far,” Zinetula Bilyaletdinov said through an interpreter.
Ovechkin had little to say about the greatest embarrassment of his career.
“It sucks,” he told reporters. That’s all I can say.”
Asked what his emotions were, he answered: “No emotion right now.”
He was numb, and that numbness turned to anger in 2018, when the NHL did not send its players to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Ovechkin threatened to go and compete with his Russian teammates regardless
Ovechkin — carrying the shame of the 2014 Sochi games — was defiant. “I didn’t change my mind and I won’t,” he said. “Because it’s my country, I think everybody wants to play there. It’s the biggest opportunity in your life to play in the Olympic Games. So, I don’t know, somebody is going to tell me ’don’t go,’ I don’t care, I just go.”
A few months later, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced players with active NHL contracts would not be allowed to participate. The Russian team couldn’t allow Ovechkin on its roster, even if he wanted to play.
“Our countries are now not allowed to ask us to play in the Olympics,” Ovechkin said in a statement. “Me, my teammates and all players who want to go all lose. So do all the fans of hockey with this decision that we are not allowed to be invited. NHL players in the Olympics is good for hockey and good for Olympics. It sucks that will we not be there to play!!”
Ovechkin has no one to blame except the murderer he continues to glorify on his Instagram account, where he has long had posted a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the hockey star openly campaigned for in the past.
Think about the implications if Ovechkin had been able to carry out his threat. This was the Capitals Stanley Cup season, and his absence for weeks of Olympic play could have jeopardized that championship season and caused turmoil inside the team.
Since then, he has had to live with the Sochi failure, with no chance to redeem himself. He had to listen to his Capitals teammates like goaltender Logan Thompson talk about the joy of representing your country in the Olympics.
“It’s a dream come true,” Thompson told reporters. “You know, I’m just going to go there and soak it all in and do any role they want me to, whether that’s practice goalie, backup, hand out the water bottles. I’m just going to be happy to be there and going to do whatever I can.”
Thompson, along with Tom Wilson, are on the Canadian roster while Martin Fehervary is playing for Team Slovakia.
Ironically, the door may open for Russia to compete again in the Olympics. In December, the IOC announced it was advising governing bodies to let the countries’ teams and athletes compete in international youth events with their full identity of national flag and anthem.
Athletes have “a fundamental right to access sport across the world, and to compete free from political interference or pressure from governmental organizations,” the IOC in a statement.
Ovechkin would be nearly 44 years old for the 2030 Winter Olympics in France. He has made no announcements about his future. He is in the final year of a five-year contract with Washington. Could he extend his stay in Washington to be ready for an opportunity for 2030, or would he go back to Russia and compete in the KHL? I would imagine in Russia, Ovechkin can play as long as he wants.
If not, the greatest scorer in the history of the NHL, with a Stanley Cup on his resume, will have to live with a burning hole in his soul.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.