This is Joe Beninati. You're listening to NBC Sports Washington's Capitol's face-off podcast.

What's up, everyone? Welcome in to a special Caps face-off podcast.

I'm Rob Carlin with Taurik El-Bashir.

We're going to have Brian Compton, who covers the New York Islanders for NHL.com as they begin life after John Tavares.

That's coming up in just a few minutes, and good to get a little intel from around the league during the

quiet months here of July. But Tauric, we're kind of right in the middle of the cup's trip

around the world right now. We saw the pictures and the videos and to me my favorite moment was when

Ovi handed the cup to his dad. That was awesome. And then his dad gave him a hug and a kiss.

Yeah. And I tweeted out, you could be a world-class athlete, arguably one of the greats that ever played the game. You could be a multi-millionaire and you could be world famous. But when your dad gives you a hug and a kiss and says I'm proud of you, that still means a lot. And that was awesome. It does. and you know Alex's dad anyone who's covered or been around

this team for a long time knows that his dad was omnipresent in the first few years. I mean

there are a few dads that were able to walk through a locker room whenever they wanted to

and no one batted an eyelash but Mikhail Ovechkin could just walk through the Capitol's locker room whenever he wanted to. Robert Griffin, the third's dad, was around the locker room. That was a pain. Ove's dad was okay. You better be the first overall draft pick. So, I mean, his dad just meant so much in his life. And live up to it. Yes. It meant so much to his life. And so it was great to see that moment.

I mean, to me, though, Rob, my favorite thing that I've seen so far is how the Capitals and Ovetkin specifically have celebrated with the Cup, with the people. They did it in D.C. He did it in D.C. and now he's doing it in Moscow. I mean, he was carrying it around Red Square. I mean.

Right, for the World Cup celebration.

For the World Cup celebration, it was mean, he was carrying it around Red Square. I mean,

right for the World Cup celebration. It was just, it was awesome to see the people of his homeland, you know, his fellow Moscovites and Russian. Is that what is that? Moscovats? I might have made that up. I think they made that up. Yeah. You know, walking around and they're, you know, trying to get their hand on the cup or, you know, giving Alex a high five or a pat on the shoulder.

Because it means a lot to them. They have their own professional hockey league over there. Right. And still. But they wanted that guy to do this. Yes. And the lure of that trophy, everyone knows that when you win that trophy, you are the best of the best for that year. and they were happy to see a fellow countryman do it.

I thought it was cool that he celebrated with Guine getting his off and then Demetri Orloff too yep yeah those guys aren't from Moscow that they had to fly in for that and it was really cool to see the three of them kind of get together because let's be honest this this capitals team during the ovia era is gonna be linked with a lot of great Russians have come through this town and play for this team with Alex. So we're recording this at Wednesday, July 11th, 1230, Michael Kempney, which another great thing was Ovi saying goodbye to the cup and said, you know, Kemp, it's coming to you, kiss the cup, said, travel safe, and said, see you next year. Yeah, I like that.

Which I thought was a great line by Oby.

But Kempty gets it.

He puts it in the front seat of his, of his convertible. Convertible Mustang. And puts the seatbelt on. That was a convertible 5.0 Mustang. Yeah, that's. Beautiful car. It was a beautiful car. I love the fact, safety first. Safety first.

He put the seatbelt on.

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