- Alex Ovechkin wears No. 8 because of his mother, two-time Olympic gold medalist Tatyana Ovechkina
- Ovechkina chose the number herself to honor Soviet basketball player Vladimir Tsinman
- Read below for full details on why Ovechkin wore 32 in Russia
Alex Ovechkin has worn No. 8 so long that the number and the man have basically merged.
He got asked about it again at the Ovi Cup on Saturday, and the answer starts where it always starts. With his mom.
“My mother played with number 8. So there was never any question about what number I would wear. My mother is my lifelong idol. Because she’s an outstanding athlete.”
Ovechkin said that to sports.ru’s Alexander Plekhanov, per a translation of the interview. And it isn’t a son being polite. Tatyana Ovechkina won two Olympic gold medals for the Soviet Union and joined Dynamo Moscow’s basketball club at 16 years old.
The part that gets skipped is where his mother got it. Ovechkina laid that out in a 2006 newspaper interview, resurfaced by RMNB, when she was asked who shaped her as a player.
“First and foremost, Vladimir Tsinman. I even took number 8 in his honor. Now he’s better known as a coach. But I was simply in love with what Tsinman did on the court as a player. His passes are true basketball classics.”
Tsinman ended up coaching the Soviet men’s national team at two Olympics, taking gold in Munich in 1972 and bronze in Montreal four years later.
Ovechkin hasn’t worn the 8 everywhere, though. During his time with Dynamo Moscow, first in the Russian Super League and again during the 2012-13 NHL lockout, he skated in 32.
He cleared that one up too.
“When I joined the adult Dynamo team, our captain, Alexei Troshchinsky (who wore number 8), played for us. That’s why I chose number 32.”
Washington drafted him first overall in 2004, and when he arrived in 2005 he became the 22nd player in Capitals history to wear the number. None of the other 21 turned it into a nickname.
