ARLINGTON, Va. -- After taking Thursday off and working with his personal trainer,
Alex Ovechkin was back on the ice at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex Friday, working with linemates
Sergei Fedorov and
Viktor Kozlov on breakout and shooting drills.
It was one final preparation before "The Series" begins Saturday afternoon at Verizon Center against
Sidney Crosby and the
Pittsburgh Penguins (1 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, RDS).
Ovechkin stood in front of a large contingent of media, including scribes and camera crews from every neck of the woods (ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, The Globe and Mail, Washington Post, Washington Times, NHL.com, TSN, Comcast SportsNet, etc.) and appeared ready for what lies ahead for both himself and his team.
"That's what it's all about," Ovechkin said. "It's lots of attention. If something goes wrong maybe it's this guy feels no good. It's good. That's why I'm talking about it being good for the fans. There's great interest."
You can count Ovechkin among the interested parties. He admitted Friday that if he were just a fan, "of course I would watch this series."
That's the beauty of No. 8. He gets it. He knows what lies ahead. He understands how magnified this matchup Pittsburgh and Washington, between him and Crosby will be.
"Of course it's going to be one of the most exciting moments of my hockey career," Ovechkin said, "but I hope it's just the beginning."
That's the extent of what he said about just himself Friday. Ovechkin is trying his hardest to make the build-up for this series all about the teams. What kind of a teammate would he be if he didn't?
"Yeah, we got more points and everybody says, 'Oh, they're superstars and they're going to play against each other, so who is going to be better in the series?' " Ovechkin said. "The better has to be the team. It's not the time to show your personal thing. You have to do it for the team. I think that's the most important thing."
That being said, when Ovechkin was asked if when he watches the NBA (which he does), does he think it's the Lakers vs. Cavs, or Kobe vs. LeBron?
"Of course I'm going to say LeBron and (Kobe)," Ovechkin said. "But right now for us , I think it's Washington and Pittsburgh.
"In the NBA, they are more individual games than in hockey," he said, clarifying his reasoning. "In the NBA there are great players, but only Boston has such a good team. In here, we can say we have Semin, Fedorov, Backstrom, Green. They have Malkin, Letang, Fleury. You can't say it's only one guy. In the NBA I think you can."
Ovechkin admitted that he has thought about what playing Pittsburgh in the playoffs would be like. Then again, he also wonders what it would be like to play Detroit, and we all know what would have to happen for a Caps-Wings matchup to come true.
"I don't want to prove nothing right now," he said. "It's all about winning. If I don't score, I don't care. I just want to move forward."
That the playoff history between these two franchises clearly favors the Penguins - Pittsburgh has won six of seven series against Washington - doesn't mean a thing to No. 8.
He understands the fans think about that kind of stuff, but the history is regional and he wasn't even living in North America the last time the Penguins and Caps met in the playoffs (2001).
"I don't know and I don't really care," he said. "I don't like history. I don't like to look back at what was 10 years ago or 15 years ago. It was a different time and with different people around."
-- Dan Rosen