BETHESDA, Md. — It's 8:49 a.m. when David Kottler turns down Elm Street in his car. He sped past Mamma Lucia's restaurant before honking his horn a few times.
"Let's go Caps!" he yells out the window, drawing smiles from the few people who line the street.
Puck drop between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights is still nearly 12 hours away, but Kottler, the general manager of the Bethesda Mamma Lucia's location, has hours of work ahead of him to make sure Washington's biggest star doesn't deviate from his pregame routine.
For years, Mamma Lucia's has delivered the same meal to the Capitals practice facility in Arlington, but currently its clientele has been whittled down and it only caters to one player: Alex Ovechkin.
"You can't say no to Ovi," Kottler said.
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Whether the food actually played a role in Ovechkin staring in Game 3 is anyone's guess, but one thing is undisputable: For the 51st time this season, Kottler's restaurant prepared the same thing for Ovechkin, and then Ovechkin did what he does so frequently; score and dominate.
The meal is always the same, prepared on this day by Chef Eric, who won't give away the secret to how he specifically fine-tunes it for Ovechkin's pallette.
"The secret is the secret," he said. "That's my secret."
But it's still not even 9 a.m., and after Kottler parks, he runs out of his car and finds the other chef who had come in early, Sammy, to help prepare a special gameday feast.
"Come on, Sammy, you've got 50 pizzas to make," Kottler said, shepherding him into the restaurant to begin the day's culinary activities.
In addition to to the regular Ovechkin plate that Kottler estimates they delivered on every home game day to Kettler Ice Complex this season (except for two occasions: Once when the Capitals were in Annapolis for the Stadium Series, and prior to Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning when Barry Trotz put the team in the JW Marriott downtown, but Lucia's still delivered), Kottler has another job on Saturday.
The restaurant made 100 pizzas -- 800 slices -- and 300 "Mamma Lucia's towels" that were in the van along with the chicken parm and spaghetti for the Capitals captain.
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Kottler said the restaurant has no official affiliation with the team, and he doesn't want one. In their current relationship, Capitals director of team services Rob Tillotson places the order to Kottler. It works, Kottler says, and he doesn't want to overstep the boundary and give the team any problems.
At 9:02 a.m., some new friends of the restaurant walk up to the front, two on two legs, one on four.
Kottler opens the door, and much louder this time, "Let's ... go ... Caps!" he yells, greeting Mike Robertson, his cousin Moe, and Mike's celebrity bulldog "Ovechkin" into the restaurant.
Robertson and his wife Kim lived in Maryland for 17 years before moving to Coronado. But a devout Capitals fan with a devout fan dog, Robertson drove to Washington from San Diego -- a four-day, cross-country trek -- to make sure he and his pooch won't miss out on what could be a historic event.
On Friday, Robertson and Ovechkin (the dog) met one of Mamma Lucia's owners, Jimmy Fragoyannis, at the Falls Grove location. So naturally they invited him to come by Saturday when the meal for the 8-year-old bulldog's namesake was being prepped.
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"This is his retirement ride, the last time he's coming to the East Coast," Robertson said. "We'll do West Coast, but he's still panting from being in the car; he gets stressed."
They won't be in the arena Saturday evening, which Robertson knew before they made the pilgrimage. There are no dogs allowed inside, and even when they were local, Robertson would bring the dog outside the arena on game days, relishing in the fan interaction and the experience.
It was there he met the human Ovechkin's father, Mikhail, who made fast friends with the canine that shared his surname.
"He would come over to us at games and pet him and stuff," Robertson said. "He didn't speak English."
They communicated another way, though. Robertson carried a fanny-pack filled with doggie treats. Without warning, Mikhail would walk up and pluck them from the pouch, feeding his dog-son.
"Anytime I had this and I felt someone rooting around behind me, I knew it was his dad," Robertson said.
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Now it's 9:10 a.m., and the aroma of the pizzas is filling up the restaurant. Eric estimates it will take 30 minutes to make the 50 pizzas. Two other Mamma Lucia's locations are each cooking 25 to round out the 100.
Kottler walks back over -- he also doesn't have tickets for Game 3 -- but strategizes with Robertson about how they could get the Capitals unofficial mascot into the arena.
"I joked, I said, 'Given the playoff history of the dog, he's a fanbase support dog,'" Robertson said. "He is qualified."
At 9:15 a.m., it's time for Ovechkin to suit up; no, not the Russian scoring machine, but his four-legged friend. Kottler and Mamma Lucia's will be selling t-shirts to celebrate "The Ovechkin Special," a recent addition to the menu. For $25, customers can get the chicken parm, a salad, garlic bread, and the four sauces (meat, marinara, Alfredo, and marsala) just like Ovechkin, with a large cheese pizza.
Those t-shirts ($15) and the towels Kottler was handing out at morning skate prior to Game 3 ($10) are available at the restaurant. All the proceeds are going to an organization called Nourish Now, a non-profit food bank that collects leftovers and redistributes them to those in need.
🚨 Fan towels & tees available TODAY at all 6 of our locations, while supplies last!
— Mamma Lucia (@mammaluciasofMD) June 2, 2018
All proceeds will go to @NourishNow to help feed the hungry in our area.
Get game 3️⃣ ready, DC! 🏒#ALLCAPS #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/DwzFKTcHdV
So Robertson crouches down and drapes the new uniform over Ovechkin: no shoulder pads necessary.
"It makes for fantastic pictures when he's a little panty," Robertson said. "You should just put him in the window; he'll draw people in."
Fragoyannis is the next one into the restaurant at around 9:33 a.m. It's an important morning, so it's all hands on deck. Sammy and Eric are churning out pizzas at this point, filling up the counter top across from the oven. A replay of a Peru-Columbia soccer friendly is playing on the television as they constantly rotate pies in and out of the two-level pizza oven.
But now it's getting close to 10 a.m., when the Lucia's crew is going to load up its caravan and make the 17-mile drive to Kettler, so Kottler reminds Eric they're on a deadline and he retreats deeper in the kitchen to get "the cart."
"It's a big cart," Eric said.
Its contents are various containers, the necessary ingredients to making Ovechkin's game day fuel.
This process, Eric said, takes about seven minutes from start-to-finish, and his estimate rings pretty accurate. He throws a chicken fillet in the fryer before moving to his four pans to prepare Ovechkin's sauces. He throws a handful of spaghetti into a strainer submerged in a boiling pot, and gets to work, moving from station-to-station to complete each piece of the meal. When the chicken is ready, he takes it out of the fryer before smothering it in marinara sauce and topping that with cheese. The sauces each get their own separate container, and the spaghetti comes out last and placed into a black Tupperware. The food is packed into a small red bag, the most important item that will be packed into the Lucia-mobile.
At the crack of 10 a.m., cars get loaded up -- Robertson, his nephew, and Ovechkin in their car, Kottler in a trail car, and a few of his workers in the van, carrying all the goods.
As Robertson pulls into Kettler Ice Complex, some fans are already beginning to leave, with the Capitals morning skate having concluded.
"We're giving out free pizza," he yells out the window, trying to get some of those entering their cars to turn around. A man in an Alex Semin shirt seems particularly interested.
And when the van finally pulls up next to Kettler's front doors at 10:43 a.m. (after hitting some traffic), Kottler jumps out his car, feet behind, to announce the news: Free pizza and towels for everyone. One his workers is in the midst of his own special teams mission, playing the role of Nicklas Backstrom and dishing to the Capitals superstar. A large crowd swallows up the vans, circling its opened back doors where the 100 pizza boxes sit.
Puck drop for Game 3 is still nearly 10 hours away, but for Alex Ovechkin, one of the essential slices of his pregame routine begins now.