...as evidenced by this photo of the Capitals defenseman and British Columbia native, with a jubilant Alex Ovechkin in the backround, at Kettler Capitals Iceplex this morning.



“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!))))))))))” (Tarik El-Bashir/The Washington Post)

The nature of the bet between Alex Ovechkin and Karl Alzner was simple. “If Canada win, I’ll practice with a Canadian jersey,” Ovechkin explained, “And if Russia win he’s going to skate with the Russia jersey – it was pretty money.”

As everyone well knows by now, Russia defeated Canada, 6-5, in an electrifying game Tuesday in the world junior championship semifinals, which meant there was a Russia jersey waiting in Alzner’s stall at KCI for practice.

Canada nearly completed a comeback in the contest before ultimately losing, and it didn’t make for a relaxing viewing experience.

“I was so upset when it all went down, not necessarily because of the tournament and because Canada wasn’t going to wear gold but I had to wear that jersey — that’s something that I would never normally do,” Alzner said. “I was standing up for pretty much half of that third period, in a restaurant, watching that game, just walking around pacing.”

Much to the dismay of Alzner, a former captain of the Canadian junior team, he wasn’t going to get away with wearing the jersey for only a few minutes.

“The coaches didn’t really help me out at all,” Alzner said. “I asked I could just wear it for the first couple drills and they said, ‘Hey, whatever the bet is, you have to do it.’ It sucked.”

Said Ovechkin: “Too bad not lots of people were there today. I’m glad they won, I don’t want to wear the Canadian jersey. It was good.”

Russia faces Sweden tonight at 8 p.m. (NHLN), so don’t be surprised if Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson are involved in another round of betting. Canada plays Finland at 3:30 p.m. for the bronze.