Alex Ovechkin Talks About The Important Role Of Beer In An NHL Locker Room

Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin is within striking distance of Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record, but even if he wasn't one of the best offensive players in NHL history, the guy is an absolute beauty.

In a recent interview, the Great 8 talked about the importance of having some beers with the boys.

According to Russian Machine Never Breaks, Ovechkin did an interview with a buddy of his, a blogger named Amiran Sardarov, and in it, he talked about having some locker room brewskis. That interview was then transcribed on sports.ru and given the ol' Google Translate treatment so that those of us who don't speak a lick of Russian know what the hell he was saying.

"I don’t hide it," Ovechkin said of having some beers after games. "I like the taste of beer. I like light beer, sometimes I can drink Guinness."

Alex Ovechkin is within striking distance of Wayne Gretzky's NHL goal record… he's also a big post-game locker room beer guy. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

See? Alex Ovechkin is all of us… except for that part about being one of the best goal-scorers in hockey history.

"I can’t imagine a [player] who says he doesn’t drink, ‘he quit.’ You can take a break for a certain time, but after the game, 2 to 3 cans of beer – with pleasure. It’s useful. In Washington, we have a refrigerator with beer in the coaching room. It’s normal."

I don't know why, but learning that Ovechkin essentially treats the NHL like a beer league and is still only a little over forty goals shy of the NHL record. He'd be there had there already had he not been one and a half seasons lost to lockout and another half lost to COVID.

If and when Ovie does break surpass Gretzky's goal mark (I think it's more of a "when" question, but that's just me) the celebration will be wild.

I mean, he may not go as hard as when the Capitals won the Cup, but if it's even a fraction of that, it'd still be a sight to behold.