Alex Ovechkin Receives an Actual Sheep as Birthday Present on Live TV

Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin turned 30 on Thursday, and he celebrated his departure from the 20s in rather peculiar fashion.

Let’s allow CBSSports.com’s Chris Peters to take it from here:

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Ovechkin face-timed with TV Zvezda in Moscow so they could help him celebrate. Apparently Ovechkin had expressed he'd like a plush sheep for his birthday in a previous interview and these presenters have long memories. But, come on, that's way too easy, even if it's an odd request.

The folks at Zvezda did him one better. They got him the genuine article: A live sheep in a Team Russia hockey jersey.

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He supposedly named the sheep “Russia.”

At the first day of Capitals practice, Ovechkin confused reporters when he was thought to have said he got a “ship” for the big day, per CSNWashington.com's Chuck Gormley:

Nope, just a sheep. Even better.

[Twitter, CBSSports.com]