{"id":848055,"date":"2026-09-15T00:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848055\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:34:13","slug":"mvo-alex-ovechkin-debuts-new-stick-with-possible-tribute-to-late-father-mikhail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848055\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018MVO\u2019: Alex Ovechkin debuts new stick with possible tribute to late father Mikhail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ovechkin<\/a> debuted a new hockey stick during his first skate back at MedStar Capitals Iceplex<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

After saying hi to reporters and filming some promotional content, the soon-to-be 41-year-old Ovechkin joined the Washington Capitals<\/a>\u2018 informal skate, using both his familiar green Pro Reserve<\/a> twig and a newly-designed stick featuring red and white stripes and the abbreviation \u201cMVO.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A\ud83d\udcf8: Katie Adler\/RMNB<\/p>\n

While the exact meaning of the letters remains unknown without hearing from the man himself, \u201cMVO\u201d are the initials of his late father, Mikhail Viktorovich Ovechkin.<\/p>\n

Mikhail, who had been one of his son\u2019s biggest supporters throughout his career, died in February 2023<\/a> at the age of 71. <\/p>\n

A former athlete in his own right, Mikhail was a defender in Dynamo Moscow\u2019s soccer system and played for the club\u2019s reserve team before a serious thigh injury ended his playing career. He later helped shepherd Ovechkin through Dynamo\u2019s hockey system, regularly driving him to practices and eventually following his career to Washington.<\/p>\n

Although health problems prevented Mikhail from traveling to Las Vegas for Washington\u2019s 2018 Stanley Cup win, Ovechkin called him immediately afterward. Mikhail later told the Capitals he cried from happiness and couldn\u2019t sleep all night. When Ovechkin brought the Cup to Moscow that summer, they lifted the Cup together at Dynamo\u2019s training facility in Novogorsk.<\/p>\n

Years later, Ovechkin showed appreciation to his dad by playing in a friendly with Dynamo Moscow\u2019s soccer team<\/a> and wearing Mikhail\u2019s old no. 3.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin started the friendly against Amkal and scored with his dad in attendance<\/a>. \u201cMy father played for Dynamo Moscow and was injured. And today this match was more for him than for me,\u201d Ovechkin said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Mikhail died, Ovechkin returned to Russia to be with his family and missed four games while on bereavement leave, including the Capitals\u2019 Stadium Series game against the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin called his dad\u2019s passing \u201cthe toughest situation I\u2019ve been through all NHL career.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe give me everything,\u201d Ovechkin said<\/a>. \u201cAll his health, all his time. He travel with me all over the world and been at every practice when he have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cHe always have a great sense of humor. Even when he don\u2019t understand people he always try to ask something. People who know him they\u2019re going miss his smile, they\u2019re going to miss his energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, Russian Hockey Federation vice president Roman Rotenberg helped open an amateur hockey tournament in Krasnogorsk held in Mikhail Ovechkin\u2019s memory<\/a>. Rotenberg, who know Mikhail personally, credited him with devoting much of his life to supporting Alex\u2019s hockey career and instilling the work ethic and team-first values that helped shape Ovi into one of the hockey\u2019s greatest players. Oveckhin and his mother, Tatyana, were both in attendance.<\/p>\n

If the MVO markings are indeed a tribute to Mikhail, it would be the latest in a long line of personal and familial dedications Ovechkin has incorporated into his equipment over the years.<\/p>\n

Number 8
\n\"Alex\ud83d\udcf8: Alan Dobbins\/RMNB<\/p>\n

When Ovechkin first reached the NHL, he chose to wear the number 8 in honor of his mother, Tatyana<\/a>, a two-time Olympic gold medalist basketball player with the USSR.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother played with number 8,\u201d Ovechkin said<\/a>. \u201cSo there was never any question about what number I would wear. My mother is my lifelong idol. Because she\u2019s an outstanding athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloves
\n\"\"Photo: Elizabeth Kong<\/p>\n

The name of Ovechkin\u2019s older brother, Sergei Ovechkin, is stitched in Cyrillic onto his gloves along with two eyes. Sergei tragically passed away at age 24 from a blood clot after a car accident when Alex was just 10 years old. Ovechkin has since named his first son after him and his goal celebration, where he kisses his glove and points skyward, is in tribute to his late brother.<\/p>\n

Skates
\n\"Alex\ud83d\udcf8: Ian Oland\/RMNB<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\u2019s skates have the names \u201cMisha,\u201d the common Russian diminutive for Mikhail, on one side, and \u201cSergey,\u201d for his older brother, on the other.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chest pads<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Since the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in September 2011<\/a>, Ovechkin has worn a patch featuring the team\u2019s logo on his chest. Ovechkin lost a childhood friend and former Russian national-team teammate, Alexander Galimov, in the tragedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin debuted a new hockey stick during his first skate back at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Monday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-848055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}