Andrey SenchenkoCorrespondent SportAll materialsToday Alexander Ovechkin celebrates his 36th birthday — a truly iconic hockey player both for Russia and for the whole world. In the best league in the world, Alexander played 16 incomplete, but crazy seasons, and will spend five more of the same, continuing the pursuit of the record of the great Wayne Gretzky. After so many years, it is difficult to imagine that the career of our star could have turned out completely differently, if not for a number of fateful circumstances that happened in the summer of 2005. Then Ovechkin, together with Dynamo Moscow, celebrated the championship. Already at 19, he was a real star. The first NHL draft pick in 2004 confirms this. And in that offseason, Alexander decided to change the club. However, parting with the home team turned out to be very ugly and even scandalous.
July 28, 18:45 Hockey «Washington» spat on the Cup. Ovechkin's pursuit of Gretzky turned out to be more important than the NHL had just survived a historic lockout, and due to serious disagreements between the hockey union and the league, the new season was on the verge of collapse. In this regard, Ovechkin was preparing to continue his career in Russia. Only not in “Dynamo”, but in Omsk “Vanguard”. The Hawks were gathering the championship team, while the blue and white were going through a big restructuring. The state of affairs in the team did not suit Alexander. «The team that became the champion of Russia no longer exists,» said Alexander, who firmly decided to spend two years in Omsk. The hockey player was already training with might and main with the new club and had a signed preliminary contract. At the same time, “Dynamo” declared war on “Vanguard”: Muscovites categorically refused to let their star go to the rival's camp and made every attempt to disrupt the transfer.
