Alex Ovechkin's Stanley Cup cake.

Since winning his first Stanley Cup early last month, Washington Capitals’ winger Alex Ovechkin has been celebrating, partying the night of, several days after, and beyond. Each player on the winning team traditionally gets to spend some time taking the Cup wherever they want, and Ovechkin got to do that this weekend, heading to Russia with the Cup and spending two days and nights with it in his hometown of Moscow. And boy, were there celebrations to be had, but also some reflective moments.

Tom Gulitti of NHL.com and Isabelle Kurshudyan of The Washington Post were amongst the media with Ovechkin to chronicle the Cup tour, and they did so in several remarkable articles, plus plenty of tweets. Here are some of the best tweets showing off Ovechkin’s trip, which had everything from touching quiet moments with his family to incredible private parties to visits with thousands of fans:

Ovechkin trip’s is notable not just for the celebrations, but also for the way he shared the trophy with his teammates, his family, and the Russian public. It shows just how special the Stanley Cup can be, and what it can mean to a lot of people. It’s very cool to see Ovechkin do this. And hey, as his “see you next year” here indicates, he’s certainly not content after winning this once:

A Stanley Cup victory’s incredibly hard to achieve, as Ovechkin knows all too well, and title defenses are rare. So it’s certainly worth enjoying time with the Cup while you have it. But don’t think he’s giving up after this, either. Ovechkin seems motivated to try and do this all again, and it might not be wise to count him out.

[The Washington Post and NHL.com]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.