{"id":125246,"date":"2025-08-07T03:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T03:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125246\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T03:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T03:02:09","slug":"darius-kasparaitis-describes-training-and-stopping-for-a-beer-with-alex-ovechkin-during-the-4-nations-face-off-break-he-said-that-was-too-hard-for-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125246\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Kasparaitis describes training and stopping for a beer with Alex Ovechkin during the 4 Nations Face-off break: \u2018He said that was too hard for him\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ovechkin<\/strong> has been known to rest his body whenever he gets an in-season break, but with no All-Star Game to skip this past year, he chose instead to keep himself fresh by training with a mystery workout partner in Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retired NHLer Darius Kasparaitis<\/strong> turned out to be that mystery man, and he recently described how the Capitals captain reached out to train with him during the eight-day break set aside for the 4 Nations Face-off. Kasparaitis relayed the details during his guest appearance on the latest episode of the Cam and Strick Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he came here during the 4 Nations tournament and texted me, \u2018Can I come and train with you in the gym?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s cool,’\u201d he explained. \u201cSo, that\u2019s how we met.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two posed for a photo while sitting on stationary bikes at a gym in North Miami, where Kasparaitis lives and runs a Florida-based real estate development company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a couple training sessions. I killed them. He said that was too hard for him,\u201d Kasparaitis continued, seemingly joking. \u201c[We] actually went skating after we did \u2013 off ice and on ice \u2013 and then Ovi said, \u2018Can we stop at the gas station, I need a beer.\u2019 I said, \u2018That\u2019s my boy!’\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasparaitis was born and raised in Soviet Lithuania and played hockey in the USSR. He earned the title of Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1992 and was inducted into the Russian and Soviet Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016. He played 14 seasons in the NHL, logging 163 points (27g, 136a) with four different teams. Ovechkin and Kasparaitis\u2019 careers overlapped from 2005-07 when the latter was a member of the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n

The duo had trained together in Florida before their most recent meetup. They were part of a sizable group of players that skated at Pines Ice Arena in Pembroke Pines, Florida<\/a>, ahead of the NHL reopening operations to conclude the 2019-20 season after the COVID-19 pandemic paused play a few months prior. Kasparaitis said he is continually impressed with Ovechkin\u2019s longevity in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically, he\u2019s a beast. I watch him train right now. He has a little belly now, but that\u2019s okay, as long as he can score,\u201d he joked. \u201cOvi also have a good sense of humor, he always likes to be challenged. It doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m 50 and he\u2019s 40, he always makes fun of me if I cannot do certain things, you know, he trash talks like I used to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extra training paid off for Ovechkin later in the season, aiding his quest to break Wayne Gretzky\u2019s all-time goals record on April 6 and leading the Capitals to the top of the NHL\u2019s Eastern Conference. He told reporters upon returning to the DMV in February that the South Florida sessions were necessary after he missed 40 days of the season with a broken fibula.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think especially when I get hurt, I don\u2019t skate much during that break, and it was hard to me, coming back on the ice,\u201d he said then<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t want to lose that touch, lose that skating ability, so it was nice and thankful for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin has been known to rest his body whenever he gets an in-season break, but with no…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-125246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114985261205529438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}