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When Sergei Aleksandrovich Ovechkin arrived in the world on August 18, Nicklas Backstrom sent a text message to his long-time teammate, Capitals.
"What a summer for you," Backstrom wrote to Alex Ovechkin. "Two of the greatest things in life the same summer."
After three months of celebrating the first Stanley Cup franchise, the opening day of the Washington training camp on Friday was a comeback. The summer was mild, but it was also a month less than the past. There was less time to heal the bumps and blues of an extended season, and then there was less time to train for the new one. Social media has the impression that capitals have spent their summer drinking beer in a noisy party or another.
Ovechkin welcomed a first child on top of that, so it would have been understandable if he was not really looking forward to Friday's fitness test. But as a new season officially began with the first day of training camp, Ovechkin seemed slimmer and happier. The weight of the playoffs disappointments was reinforced by the triumph of June. And his concern about his actual weight disappeared when he seemed to be in better shape than it was a year ago.
[Perspective: This time, the Capitals’ heaviest burden might be an actual hangover]
"I was so impressed by his coming to camp. The form in which he entered was great, "said coach Todd Reirden. This is something we've talked a lot about this summer, and I'm really proud of him for the way he showed up in the last few days in practice and practice today. Assume this has been a big smile, and it always pushes guys to feel better when one of your leaders takes pleasure in coming to the rink.
The atmosphere of Ovechkin seemed to be emblematic of the team. The former winners of the Stanley Cup were victims of a difficult start to the season after their championship. But if the Capitals were to still feel the wear and tear of their long playoff streak, they insisted that it was really the opposite.
"It was not so rusty when we got on the ice," said Backstrom.
"Maybe they did not have enough time to get out," said General Manager Brian MacLellan.
They may not have had time to heal. Two players, third-line center Lars Eller and defender John Carlson, are already injured in the lower body and are not on the ice on Friday. Reirden said it was a precautionary measure for two veterans and that the ailments were relatively minor.
"There are some guys with bumps and bruises," said Tom Wilson before. "These can go a little beyond other reasons because you do not have the time to put them to bed. But hockey players will tell you, most nights you have little things to handle, but that's why you're a pro.
[Five things to watch for at Capitals training camp]
Right Wing Oshie does not expect Capitals conditioning to be much different from other teams. "Even if other guys were training before us, we were still playing and fit for a longer time," he said. As for the perception that capitals drank their summer, he insisted that it was exaggerated by social media.
"I will not deny we had a good time and we really celebrated," Oshie said. "But there were a lot of times, people were asking me to drink a beer through my shirt. It's the only beer I drank that day, so you think I'm going crazy, but people actually asked me to do it. You only see this snapshot and you think that's all we did. . . .
"We had fun and we are proud of the accomplishments we have accomplished and we are proud to be called Stanley Cup champions. But we seem very refocused and very eager to start working again. "
Count Ovechkin in this group. Among clips showing that he wandered into a fountain on Georgetown's waterfront, there was one who was training in South Florida a few weeks before his son's birth. He said "of course" he changed diapers and succinctly described paternity as "fun". I have not won a Stanley Cup yet.
"I mean, it's gone. Right now, you have to think about different issues every day, every year. So, everything is about you guys, "Ovechkin told reporters.
A year ago, Ovechkin had just come out of one of the worst seasons of his career, bombarded by a close examination of his fitness level and the low expectations of the team. "We will not be worthless," he said, perhaps for his own game and the team's.
He will be 33 on Monday, and after scoring one goal less than 50 years ago, it will probably be the bar for him this year. This year's message for the team?
"No back-to-back sugars," he said with a grin on his toes.
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