When Alexander Ovechkin arrived in Washington in 2005, he was not a franchise player in the making—he was already a fully-formed superstar. In his first NHL game he scored two goals, including the winner in a shoot-out. Halfway through his rookie season he scored “The Goal,” considered by many the most spectacular goal of all time, one that left onlookers, including Wayne Gretzky, speechless.He has been a First Team NHL All-Star in every season he has played, and he has collected a slew of most valuable player awards and scoring titles. He lifted a hardluck franchise into the league’s elite and, maybe more impressively, profitability after decades of red ink. For all this, he was awarded the biggest contract in league history: a deal that will pay him $124-million across 13 seasons.Driven by a hard-as-steel mother who won two Olympic gold medals, supported by his father who gave up his job to dedicate himself to his son’s career when he was still a teenager, inspired by his older brother who died young, and a product of a rich Soviet/Russian hockey heritage, Ovechkin is a generational talent—a gifted athlete with unmatched passion. He routinely does the impossible on the ice and is not afraid to hit and be hit. In a dangerous game, he is the most dangerous player.Going into his fifth season, Ovechkin seemed to have it all—fame, fortune, fast cars—but he was still seeking the game’s greatest rewards: an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup championship. The previous spring he had seen his bitter rival, Sidney Crosby, captain Pittsburgh to a Stanley Cup and his countryman Evgeni Malkin win the Conn Smythe Award as the best player in the Penguins’ playoff run. At age 25, at the prime of his life, Ovechkin was on a quest for championships and he faced challenges, some from likely sources—Crosby and a star-studded Canadian Olympic squad—and others from unlikely ones, a journeyman