NHL Reveals Easter Eggs in Alex Ovechkin Painting

The NHL revealed a few details about the painting on Sunday, including touching on a few hidden Easter eggs within the painting.

"Easter egg details in the painting include that names of Ovechkin’s wife Nastya and sons Sergei and Ilya engraved in the Stanley Cup, the number 894 on Gretzky’s glove and 895 on the brim of Ovechkin’s hat in the image of him lifting the Cup," the NHL noted.

Meanwhile, Harris said that the Stanley Cup was an essential thing to include in the painting.

“We really liked the idea of him holding the Stanley Cup because it’s still a team thing and winning the Stanley Cup is essentially the goal,” Harris said. 

The artist also called the project an honor and admitted the timing made it unusually tense.

“When he scored the hat trick against Edmonton (on Feb. 23), I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s going to do this quicker than we think,’” said Harris, a former junior and university hockey player in Canada. “Doing the painting while he’s chasing the record is a different kind of stress than I’m used to in painting.”

The NHL pointed out that Harris also created pieces for Ovechkin’s milestones, including his 600th (20th player to reach that mark), 767th (then third-most), and 802nd (then second-most) goals.