The season of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby is about to begin. In 2008, Crosby, the poised, personable and squeaky-clean young Nova Scotian, was put front and center as the face of the NHL in the DVD 'Sidney Crosby: On the Ice and Beyond.' But now Ovechkin, the scruffier, gap-toothed, fun-loving Russian, has a spotlight of his own. If Pittsburgh's Crosby is the boy next door, said Bob Stellick, president of Stellick Marketing Communications in Toronto, Washington's Ovechkin offers a contrast. 'I wouldn't call Ovechkin the bad boy,' Stellick said, 'but that kid in the classroom who would do pranks and get everyone in trouble.' He added: 'Crosby and Ovechkin are a great 1 and 1A for the NHL. People tend to indentify with Crosby's skill and Ovechkin's enthusiasm.' The release this week of 'Alex Ovechkin the Gr8,' the NHL's second DVD documentary devoted to the lifestyle of one of its rich and famous players, and Saturday's debut episode of the HBO series '24/7: Penguins-Capitals: The Road to the Winter Classic,' with Ovechkin and Crosby front and center, signal the opening salvos in a holiday-season bombardment of the league's two biggest stars upon the hockey-viewing public. 'Like we wanted both,' Ovechkin said in a telephone conversation this week when asked if he agreed to make the DVD because Crosby had made one. In standard interview settings, Ovechkin can be monosyllabic. But in 'Ovechkin the Gr8' he is as lively, fun and personable as he is on the ice. The documentary follows Ovechkin as he spends the summer of 2010 in Moscow, with trips to Las Vegas for the NHL awards show and to Miami to shoot a hockey equipment commercial. In a Moscow segment, he drives one of his sports cars, window open, down a country road. 'The most weird air in the whole world,' he says. 'Everything is here. I have my closest, dearest friends, the Russian language.' Ovechkin visits his modest childhood apartment in the vast outskirts of the city. Speaking a mix of English and Russian, Ovechkin shows off the small parking lot where he and other children played road hockey. He pulls out his cell phone and calls upstairs to his best friend from childhood, who greets Ovechkin in his underwear. He sits in the room he shared with his brother Misha, and discusses his other brother, Sergei, who died in a car accident. He browses through family photographs with his mother and takes his posse to a Moscow McDonald's, to the delight of the clientele. 'I thought he would make it to the Russian league, but I never thought he'd make it to the NHL,' Ovechkin's father, Mikhail, a former soccer star for Dynamo Moscow, says in the film. Tatyana, Ovechkin's mother, is a former Dynamo basketball star who won two Olympic gold medals with the Soviet team. 'Playing just to play, that's not very interesting,' she says, offering a hint of where Ovechkin gets his drive. 'You have to have a goal: the Stanley Cup.' The DVD is something of a charm offensive for Ovechkin, who is represented by IMG. 'Ovechkin has obviously established himself as a highly appealing sports personality,' said Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Marketing Evaluations Inc. on Long Island. Ovechkin is recognized by 37 percent of the American public, according to the company's Q ratings, which use polling methods to measure the familiarity and likeability of celebrities. That is third among active NHL players, behind Crosby (44 percent) and Martin Brodeur (41). Ovechkin is second to Crosby in likability, 24 percent to 23. (By contrast, the most popular hockey player remains the retired Wayne Gretzky, recognized by 78 percent of the American public and liked by 39 percent.) 'The thing that Ovechkin does really well is having fun, in the game and out,' Stellick said. 'He's got the gap tooth -- he's made that kind of his look. People see him as very endearing and authentic, almost like a pirate.' In the Vegas segment of the DVD, Ovechkin cheerfully turns his smart phone on the crowds, journalists and his fellow players, becoming the interviewer. 'How are you feeling?' he asks his Capitals teammate Mike Green. 'Not too well, because I went to your party last night,' Green says. He does shtick with Ryan Miller, Ilya Bryzgalov and Crosby. 'I'm making a documentary,' Ovechkin says, phone pointed at Crosby. 'Like yours.' Ovechkin was asked this week why he seemed so at home playing the role of interviewer. 'Because it's part of my life; I enjoy it,' he said. But while Crosby seems to have an infinite capacity for supplying answers to a stream of journalists' questions, Ovechkin cannot hide the chorelike nature of that obligation. 'People ask me every day the same questions, and sometimes you just get annoyed,' he said. 'I talk about something five minutes ago and then they ask the same question.' But that's not the Ovechkin people have come to like. They like the player who celebrates a goal by dropping his stick because it's too hot to handle, then pretending to warm his hands over it. Or who barrels into opponents. Or dons sunglasses and a floppy hat to participate in an All-Star Game skills competition. The Ovechkin whose energy sends him bouncing off the walls. Is it true he drinks three Red Bulls before each game? 'I drink five, actually,' he said, then added, laughing: 'I can drink six or seven. Like water. Yeah, try it, man.' 