Ovechkin's Car: "Because I'm Ovie"

By now, you already know that Alex Ovechkin will be profiled tonight (at 7 pm) on E:60 (preview here), after what was by all accounts some of the most in-depth English-language TV filming of his career. ESPN correspondent (and former WaPo Caps beat writer) Rachel Nichols came to D.C. three or four times for hours of interviews with Ovechkin.

Among highlights, he took Rachel on the ice to re-enact The Goal in slow motion while explaining the move, showed her he performs his on-ice celebrations, and took her for a drive on 66 in his new Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series, one of only a few hundred in the world.

"A bit of a speedster," Rachel told me this morning from Georgia, where she's taping a segment on Matthew Stafford. "It was quite an experience to be in the car."

She asked Ovechkin how he managed to get such a prized and rare vehicle; "because I'm Ovie," he said.

She also asked about his energy, and how it appears to be 100 percent at all times. "One thousand percent," he said. "Two thousand percent," a teammate corrected.

"The bites he takes of life are so big," Rachel told me. "You see that on the ice, and you see that with him off the ice, and that's sort of the biggest impression I was left with. He wants to experience 1,000 percent of everything he's doing in life. To be around that kind of tornado all the time is a lot of fun."

And as long as we were talking, I asked Rachel for her impression on this resurgence from the franchise she used to cover.

"It's so much fun to see the energy in the building," she said. "I have such a clear memory of the Stanley Cup Finals, when such a big proportion of the building had people in Red Wings jersey. And now, every red jersey in there is a Capitals jersey. How cool is that?

"I grew up in the area. I know there's great fans in the area. It's just a matter of finding the right combination of something that people would feel excited about. And between the building, the way the franchise is run, the people on the team and Alex Ovechkin, it's the right combination."