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Ovechkin, Wideman smash sticks at practice

Ovechkin Wideman

It appears as though Alex Ovechkin is really embracing this rock star thing.

The day after Capitals goalie coach Olaf Kolzig said Ovechkin was caught up in his “rock star status,” Ovechkin proved him right going out on the ice and breaking stuff -- in this case, his stick.

From CSN Washington’s Chuck Gormley:

In the middle of a drill, captain Alex Ovechkin and defenseman Dennis Wideman got into a little tussle that ended with Ovechkin breaking his stick over Wideman’s.

Here are two very different versions of what took place between the two teammates.

Wideman: “He said he didn’t like the stick he was using, so he broke it, and I said, ‘Are you happy?’ and he said, ‘Yeah.’ Then he said, ‘Do you want to go for dinner tonight?’ and I was like, ‘All right,’ and that was that. And we went back and continued the drill.”

Ovechkin: “He just said, ‘Play against me hard, like we’re in a game.’ It’s just something he asked me to do, so I did it.”

Given the Caps are mired in a three-game losing streak and on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, nobody seemed to mind tempers flaring -- Washington GM George McPhee and head coach Dale Hunter actually liked seeing some emotion.

“The intensity that goes into practice usually goes into the game and that’s good,” Hunter said. “It’s playoff hockey right now so everybody’s intensity is a lot higher and more on edge.”

“We’re not running a Sunday school,” McPhee said. “This is pro hockey. That would have been a rock star versus the all star.”

Wideman, of course, made his first-ever NHL All-Star Game this year. Ovechkin made it as well, but skipped the event to go rock out in Florida*.

* rock out = posing with random dudes on beach