ARLINGTON, Va. -- Alex Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal record is on pause because of an injury to his lower left leg he sustained against the Utah Hockey Club on Monday, and the Washington Capitals are preparing for life without their captain for a yet-to-be-specified timeframe.
The Capitals expect to know more about that and the extent of Ovechkin’s injury before their game against the Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; KUSA, MNMT, ALT, SNP, SNO, SNE) after the 39-year-old left wing was further evaluated by their doctors Wednesday.
Ovechkin was listed as week to week on Tuesday.
“We're all sad,” Capitals defenseman John Carlson said Wednesday. “We’re all hoping for the quickest recovery from him. He was a huge part in our success this year [and] going forward too. But he'll be back.”
Before the third-period collision with Utah forward Jack McBain on Monday that sidelined him, Ovechkin was defying his age, leading the NHL with 15 goals in 18 games. That included five in his past two games to increase his career total to 868 and close within 27 of Gretzky’s record of 894.
Ovechkin was the oldest player in NHL history to be the first to 15 goals in a season, and the Capitals (13-4-1) were thriving along with him, leading the Eastern Conference with 27 points. Now, they’ll have to figure out how to get through the emotions of losing him and get by without him.
“He's the hottest guy in the League. He’s chasing something bigger than hockey,” Washington forward Tom Wilson said. “I think everyone in the hockey world just feels that bit of letdown, that emotion that you're just pulling for him and he's putting everything he has into it. He feels all that pressure and the whole world of hockey is just rooting him on. So, to come in [the locker room] and see that he was hurt, it hurt a little bit as a teammate.
“But at the end of the day, that's hockey. It's part of the gig, stuff happens, and guys bounce back from injuries, and he's going do the same.”
Still, this is uncharted territory for Ovechkin and the Capitals. During his 20 NHL seasons, his longest absence was six games for a lower-body injury in 2009. In all, he’s missed only 59 games, including 35 because of injury. He missed five games or fewer in 16 of his previous 19 seasons, and the 11 games he sat out during the COVID-shortened 56-game 2020-21 season (seven for a lower-body injury, four while in COVID protocol) are the most he’s missed in any season.
That appears likely to change with this injury.
“That’s certainly a new endeavor for the organization as a whole,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “But I think for us just individually, as this team progresses, he’s – [it] goes without saying -- a massive part of our team on the ice, but then also as our captain, leader in the locker room. Just everything that we do as a team, he’s our captain.
“When someone like that, you lose, it’s significant, but now you sort of shift your focus as coaches and as players and as the leadership group to, ‘OK, now, where do we go from here?’”
Carbery didn’t provide any hints about who will replace Ovechkin on the top line with Aliaksei Protas and Dylan Strome, saying only that the coaches were considering “a couple different scenarios.” Options include Andrew Mangiapane, Jakub Vrana, Taylor Raddysh and rookie Ivan Miroshnichenko, who was called up from Hershey of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
Regardless, the Capitals believe they have the depth to handle Ovechkin’s absence.
Strengthened by additions to their forward group in the offseason -- Pierre-Luc Dubois, Brandon Duhaime, Mangiapane, Vrana and Raddysh -- and breakout performances from Strome, Protas and Connor McMichael, the Capitals lead the NHL in scoring 4.33 goals per game this season after they were 28th in the League in averaging 2.63 goals per game last season.
Strome leads Washington with 28 points (six goals, 22 assists) in 18 games, ahead of Ovechkin, who has 25 points. McMichael is second on the Capitals with 12 goals -- already two-thirds of his NHL career-high 18 goals last season -- and third with 19 points in 18 games. Protas is fourth with 18 points (NHL career-high seven goals, 11 assists) in 18 games.
“It’s hard to lose our top [goal]-scorer and he’s our leader and a big guy in the locker room for sure, but I think if we want to be successful as a group, now is going to be a great test to show what we can do,” Protas said. “We’ve got find a way to keep playing our game and somebody else will need to step up, and that’s a good thing.”
There might also be an emotional hurdle for the Capitals to overcome. Ovechkin is such a fixture and positive force in their locker room. Although Carbery described Ovechkin as being “a little bit bummed” initially by his injury, he also expected that to change quickly.
“As you guys have come to know, he’s a pretty positive guy and an infectious personality that is going to look on the bright side and find the positives in every situation,” Carbery said.
The positives for the Capitals include that Ovechkin is expected to play again this season, according to Carbery. Their job is to play well enough that he returns to a team that’s still thriving and in a good spot in the standings.
“He's our captain, he's a big piece of this team -- of course, we're missing a big player,” Vrana said. “I think we're aware of that, and we're going to go out and do our best to win games without him.”
Still, even Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is disappointed he won’t get to play against Ovechkin on Thursday and that his record chase is on hold.
“When I was growing up, I was a big fan of him and Sid [Crosby], obviously, with the big rivalry,” said MacKinnon, who leads the NHL with 34 points (seven goals, 27 assists) in 19 games this season. “So, I definitely still feel like I’m a fan of him in lot of ways and watching him dominate. He’s not just limping into this record, he was dominating, and he was going for a Rocket (Richard Trophy for most goals in a season). So, it [stinks] he’s out for a few weeks, but hopefully he can get back quicker than they say and keep on chasing it.
“But it [stinks] we’re not playing him tomorrow night, for sure.”
