Alexander Ovechkin Rides Tank, Shoots Machine Gun with Russian National Team

Tanks, guns and loud noises! 

That was the name of the game for Alexander Ovechkin earlier this week. The Washington Capitals winger is currently overseas for the IIHF World Championship, and recently spent some quality time with the Russian national team riding machines of war around Belarus. 

Puck Daddy of Yahoo! Sports (h/t Nate Scott of For the Win) spotted footage of the Full Metal Jacket field day, which reportedly took place at a WWII museum near Minsk. 

It amounted to a pretty casual day. Nothing much to see here, just a team of elite international athletes piled refugee-style onto a fast-moving deliverer of death.

Museum officials offered Ovechkin the honor of firing their trusty Russian Maxim machine gun—a weapon that fell out of military use in 1950s. 

As you can see, the Capitals captain took a strong liking to the gun, pulling the trigger on a short burst and backing away to massage his perforated ear drums. I’ve seen this reaction before.

Besides suffering temporary deafness, Ovechkin seemed to enjoy his time at the museum.

While no tank selfies were snapped, Ovechkin did take a picture holding an artillery shell. He captioned it (in Russian): “Charge ready!!”

He also hopped on what appears to be Indiana Jones’ motorcycle. 

Thus went Ovechkin’s day at the museum, which came after a 7-2 demolition of Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Russia has won four straight at the ice hockey world championship and lead Group B with 12 points, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).

Hopefully Ovechkin still has the ears to hear instruction after his close encounter with World War II technology. 

Ear muffs, Ovi. Ear muffs. 

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