Captain Ovechkin

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin took the ice for Tuesday's game against the Montreal Canadiens wearing the captain's ‘C' on his sweater for the first time, hours after being named as the 14th captain in club history.

Vice president and general manager George McPhee and coach Bruce Boudreau made the selection, and Boudreau informed his team of the decision Tuesday morning, eight days after the Caps traded their previous captain, Chris Clark, to Columbus.

Ovechkin, 24, is the first European-born captain in Capitals history and the second-youngest captain in team history -- Ryan Walter was 21 when he captained the 1979-80 team. The Moscow native is the sixth Russian-born player to be an NHL captain and joins Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk as the only active Russians to captain their teams (Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Alexei Yashin and Alexei Zhamnov also served as captains at points during their careers).

Ovechkin has been one of the Caps' alternate captains since 2006-07, his second season in the NHL.

"Our team has adopted Alex's personality, and the energy, passion and drive to win that are his hallmarks have become our team's as well," McPhee said. "He sets the tone, on the ice as well as off. He's respectful to everyone and a great ambassador for our team and our sport. We look forward to him leading the Washington Capitals for a long time."

beedub wrote:No big surprise there.It was not like there are other likely candidates

hemlock wrote:

beedub wrote:No big surprise there.It was not like there are other likely candidates

Brooks Laich.

It pains me to even say his name. He would have been so nice in a Sens uni. Friggin' Peter Bondra!