The Washington Capitals are on a roll. Ovie fan fever has hit a new high. Luckily, I was able to witness the greatness of the top athlete in the D.C. area.  I was assigned makeup and hair for the star players of the Caps for the Cover Story of ESPN the Magazine (October 6, 2008 issue). First of all, the odor of a hockey players’ locker room is a rarefied stratosphere to be challenged by no other fragrance. Once immune to that experience, I was able to begin helping transform these amazing athletes into dignified pseudo-politicians. I thought it was a great way to showcase the Washington D.C. players in the Nations Capitol during election campaign. For the newly changed White House,  Alex Ovechkin took the role of President, Coach Boudreau was Vice President, Jose Theodore was Press Secretary and Laich, Backstorm and Clark were the Secret Service.  Phil Mucci, the photographer, placed the athletes -turned-politicians into stock photos taken from the Bush Administration.

Check it out at www.espnthemag.com.

To view the video of the making of the  ESPN the Magazine photoshoot with the Washington Capitals just click on the following link. That’s me putting powder on Chris Clark.

http://espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3607236”

Ovie was a perfect gentleman. In contrast, his intensity on the ice ricocheted off his puck as he entered his Arctic paradise. Wow! That puck slamming against the boards was a bang that resonated throughout the facility. My advice; don’t mess with hockey players.

The Washington Capitals’ new practice facility in Northern Virginia was Zamboni cleaned at least 3 or 4 times, maybe more. The frozen water was like clear butter. The photo shoot took place mainly on a back drop. However, the photographer let Ovie smash a goal at him, on the ice into a piece of Plexiglas, that his two assistants were holding with their hands right in front of the camera. Photographers are risk takers. They sacrifice to get the shot. I couldn’t look. In the end, no one was injured in the making of this photoshoot.