Inspired by Ovi: Sadie’s Path to Gr8ness

The following article appears in W Magazine, a lifestyle publication produced by the Washington Capitals. W features more than 200 pages of exclusive photography of Capitals players and their families, as well as content and interviews on various lifestyle topics. It is available for purchase online at *washcaps.com/WMagazine* and at the Team Stores at Capital One Arena and MedStar Capitals Iceplex.

As part of the Women in Hockey Night celebrations last season, six members of the Capitals ALL CAPS ALL HER (ACAH) Learn to Play program were invited to stand with the team’s starting lineup before their matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. For 7-year-old Sadie Johnson, it would become a night she’d never forget.

Sadie hit the jackpot, as she was paired with her favorite player: Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin.

“We didn’t know she was paired with Ovi until the moment they were skating together,” Sadie’s father Mac explained. “I was squinting across the ice waiting for her to hopefully glide into view. When she did, she was followed by a pair of yellow laces, and I couldn’t believe it.”

Sadie is an Ovechkin superfan. She made sure her parents kept their “GR8 Chase” Ovechkin bobblehead updated as he pursued the all-time goal scoring record, and she even keeps a notebook documenting each of Ovechkin’s goals. Sadie’s two favorite Ovechkin goals are his record-breaking 895th career goal, as well as career goal 888. Ovechkin scored number 888 just moments after being accompanied by Sadie during the national anthem.

“He scored that for me,” Sadie cheered.

Sadie’s parents Mac and Sara took Sadie to her first Caps game when she was just six weeks old.  A few months later, Mac took Sadie to the Caps’ Stanley Cup parade on the National Mall.

“She’s convinced she’s a lucky charm for the team since the Cup win happened so soon after she was born,” Mac explained.

The Johnsons expressed their Capitals fandom in a creative way the following fall when they dressed Sadie up as the Stanley Cup in the Del Ray Halloween Parade costume contest.

“I cobbled the costume together from a sequin baby dress, a gray hat and a Styrofoam cup I spray-painted silver,” Mac said.

Stanley Cup-Sadie was also accompanied by other Capitals-inspired costumes. Mac dressed like Ovechkin, Sara went as Braden Holtby and their dog Penny was Slapshot. They even turned their stroller into a Zamboni.

Sadie’s parents took her out on the ice for the first time when she was just two years old.

“She was a maniac,” Mac explained. “I tried telling her she needed to learn to stand up first, but she saw the other kids sprinting and of course that's all she wanted to do.”

Sadie later started taking Learn to Skate classes at MedStar Capitals Iceplex when she was four. A year later, she drew inspiration to start playing hockey from the Mites on Ice during a Caps game.

“She was cheering harder for the kids than for the Caps,” Mac explained. “I asked her if she wanted to try that herself and she screamed ‘YEEEES!’”

After that, Sadie’s parents signed her up for the all-girls session of the Future Caps Learn to Play program presented by World Wide Technology, and she worked her way through the ALL CAPS ALL HER Learn to Play program, which she recently completed.

“ACAH has been amazing,” Mac said. “The coaching staff is phenomenal, and their love for the game and the kids is infectious. Sadie is joining her first house league team this fall, and I don't think she'd be so confident about that without ACAH.”