If Wayne Gretzky had his famous office behind the opposing net, Alex Ovechkin also has his: the faceoff point to the right of the goalkeeper. Of the 866 goals he scored, the vast majority were from there.
How is it that, even after 19 seasons and 1,443 games, when everyone is aware of this habit, he still manages to hit the target so regularly?
Mathieu Perreault, who played four seasons with the Capitals, has his opinion on this.
Photo Getty Images via AFP
“Plus, he’s not a guy who targets the corners,” recalls the Drummondvillois. His shot is so powerful. Most of the time, it goes under the goalkeeper’s arm or through his pads.
Today, the Tsar is saving himself. Like the most experienced players in a garage league, he doesn’t skate for nothing. But the young Ovechkin, the one for whom Perreault was the companion on the massive attack, was capable of scoring in several ways.
“I often saw him get past defenders to rush to the net. At five on five, he often stuck his nose into traffic to deflect pucks, remembers the man who also played 25 games with the Canadian. He’s a force of nature, a superman.”
The shoe kick
Perreault has fond memories of his years spent on the ice with Ovechkin, “a demanding winger.” But he keeps an even better one off the ice.
Perreault can boast of being the only player in history to have succeeded in playing the famous shoe shine to the Russian star, a trick which consists of applying a good dose of butter to a shoe without the victim’s knowledge.
“It was my recruit dinner. Scott Hannan, who was sitting next to me, waved subtly. I crawled under the table to him. A few minutes later, when we knocked on our glasses and he realized it was him, he wasn’t happy.”
Especially since Ovechkin wasn’t wearing little leather shoes.
“They were $1,000 Dolce & Gabbana suede shoes. I know because he started yelling at Marcus Johansson, thinking it was him, that he owed him $1,000,” Perreault said. I was glad he didn’t know it was from me.”
“Me, I was a flo who arrived from Drummondville. I didn’t even know that $1,000 shoes existed!” laughs the 36-year-old former hockey player.
We can understand Perreault for feeling small in his pants. Even in suede shoes, Ovechkin has a rather imposing stature.
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