Washington Capitals‘ captain Alex Ovechkin‘s son, Sergei, has been to numerous practices this season. Fans and Ovechkin’s teammates love to see the adorable one-year-old (soon-to-be- 2-year-old this August) on the ice with his father skating and lightly shooting pucks. On Friday, Sergei attended the Capitals’ practice and it was cuteness “Ovi-load”.

Ovechkin guided Sergei in stickhandling and some light shooting of the puck.

NoVa Caps’ photojournalist Joe Noyes was at MedStar Capitals Iceplex capturing the action this morning. (If you haven’t done so already, please give Joe a follow on Instagram and check out his website here.)

Sergei swapped his children’s hockey stick for center Nicklas Backstrom’s much longer stick.

Back in October, Ovechkin joined Capitals’ senior writer Mike Vogel’s “Break the Ice” podcast. While the debut episode focused on the captain’s early career in Washington, they started off discussing kids.

With nearly half of the current roster as fathers or soon-to-be dads, Ovechkin commented it’s “different”, but also “a pretty special moment” having a child. Ovechkin wants as many photos and videos taken to preserve the memories and accomplishments. He doesn’t know if Sergei will play hockey when he is older, but his goal (no pun intended) is to make sure his son can look back on the Ovechkin Era, despite not remembering these moments now.

The Capitals may be in a frustrating and rough time of the season now, but watching Ovechkin and Sergei is truly heartwarming and reminds us how family is an important part of us at the end of the day.

Video and Photos by Joe Noyes

By Della Young