The Capitals have everything they need to reach the Stanley Cup."

The trade in November of this season, which returned 35-year-old Danish center forward Lars Eller, nicknamed Tiger, to Washington, where he, along with Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Co., won the Stanley Cup a little less than seven years ago, completed the creation of the Capitals in its current form, with a huge margin of winning the Eastern Conference.

Eller confidently took the place of the third-tier center forward, and any edges feel comfortable around him. Playing defensively, outnumbered, hockey intelligence is the North European's forte, and such hockey players are worth their weight in gold in the playoffs. Especially with his winning experience in it, as well as in the NHL in general, in which he became the first Danish hockey player to play a thousand matches.

We talked with Eller in the Washington training locker room, and he was happy to talk about returning to the team, playing then and now with Alexander Ovechkin, and joking in the Washington locker room and beyond.

"We can play super—productive hockey, or we can play defensive hockey."

— How did you react to the news about your return to Washington?

— You play your best hockey when you feel comfortable off the ice. When you feel like you're in the right place. The trade to Washington was, to some extent, a homecoming for me. A familiar environment, a locker room where so much has been done and won, a lot of people I know. These are not so many players, who have changed a lot since then and there are only a few people left from that championship team, but a lot of people from the club and the team staff.

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— And how do you like the current "Washington" in comparison with that?

— No two teams are the same, and they differ in some ways. But I am convinced that today's Capitals have all the qualities to win the playoff rounds one after another and also reach the Stanley Cup.

— Your role in the 2018 Cup was great, but in one episode it was just a key one. In the first round, after losing the first two matches at home against Columbus, in the third round, you scored the goal in overtime. If the score had been 0:3, most likely, there would have been no Cup.

— It was probably the most important goal of my career. After him and that victory, everything suddenly changed dramatically. If we had lost the match and the score had been 0-3, it would have been extremely difficult to get out of that situation, I agree. But the goal tipped the scales in our direction, and it became impossible to stop us. After the next round series with Pittsburgh, which we finally won, we had a lot of faith in ourselves. We have brushed aside any doubts that this is possible. And they took the cup.

— Last season, even without you, the Capitals only got into the playoffs in the last match, before that they didn't get there at all. What happened to Washington in this case?

— If you compare him with our champion team, then perhaps he does not have such technical and scoring potential, for example, a hockey player like [Evgeny] Kuznetsov. But we have become stronger in other aspects. Perhaps we have a stronger defense now. We've changed in some ways, but we have the same powerful and physically strong players like Ovie or Tom Wilson, who can both score and pin down opponents with power moves.

It's important that this team can play in different ways. If necessary, she will act aggressively physically. It is necessary — at high speeds. We can play super—productive hockey, or we can play defensive hockey, where few goals are scored. This Washington is able to rebuild and show the hockey that is needed at a particular moment against a particular opponent. I consider this to be our great strength.

"Ovechkin is very honest with himself"

— Is Ovechkin 2025 the same as it was?

— Time is passing, of course, but I learn many details about it from the Ovi I played with before and was so happy. He's very honest with himself. He is a man who spreads positive vibe around himself. He likes to joke and laugh at others and at himself. Being with him is always a pleasure. I've always said that Ovie has never had a bad day in her life. At least that's the impression he makes. Every day I see him is the funniest and happiest day of my life!

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— Can you remember Ovechkin's best joke?

— These are things that he does more than he says. One day he was supposed to fly away on vacation. So we threw him out of the car right on the highway! He was walking along the side of the highway with all his bags, haha. We had a bunch of stories like that.

— What is the essence of his character on the ice?

— I think he's very happy when he scores, but he's just as happy when his teammates score. It's easy to see how excited he is when his teammates are doing well. For me, that's the main thing about him when Ovi is on the ice. But I also love it when he gets angry and starts crushing rivals with his powerful hits.

And how amazingly quickly he recovered in his old age after a turnaround this season! Usually, when people break their legs, they wear a cast, a special shoe, or something else. But he didn't do it for a day. Two days later, he was walking! And when I got back on the ice, I immediately started scoring and quickly became my old self.

— Do you think it would be fair to give him and other Russian hockey players the opportunity to participate in the 2026 Olympics in Milan, if the situation in the world contributes to this?

— I hope that at some point we will see all the best hockey players on the planet playing at the Olympics, world championships and other major tournaments. This means that Russia will be there.