Alex Ovechkin was placed on injured reserve Wednesday and is week to week for the Washington Capitals because of a lower leg injury sustained Monday.
The forward was injured in Washington’s 6-2 win at the Utah Hockey Club when he collided with Utah forward Jack McBain 5:30 into the third period. He was slow to get up and was helped to the bench by teammate Jakob Chychrun.
Ovechkin remained on the bench until a stoppage, when he tried to skate off the injury but appeared in pain before limping to the locker room.
“It [stinks],” Capitals forward Nic Dowd said. “Hate to see it. He’s been absolutely on fire and he’s huge for our team. He’s our captain. You’ve got to score goals to win games. He’s been playing incredible hockey, so, yeah, I hate to see it.”
The injury puts a dent in Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL all-time goals record, and the season for the Capitals (13-4-1), who are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games and atop the Metropolitan Division.
Ovechkin will have further evaluation with team physicians in Washington on Wednesday. The Capitals recalled forward Ivan Miroshnichenko from Hershey of the American Hockey League and placed forward Sonny Milano (upper body) on long-term injured reserve.
After getting a hat trick in the Capitals’ 5-2 win at the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, he scored twice Monday, giving him 868 career goals, 27 shy of breaking Gretzky’s NHL record of 894.
Ovechkin leads the NHL with 15 goals and is the first player age 39 or older in League history to be its first to 15 goals in a season, according to NHL Stats.
Prior to Ovechkin, the oldest player to reach 15 goals first was Frank Maholvich, who was 33 years and 304 days old when he scored his 15th goal in his 14th game of the season for the Montreal Canadiens against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 10, 1971.
In addition to being a prolific goal-scorer, Ovechkin has also been durable. In his 20 NHL seasons, he’s missed a total of 35 games because of injury, the longest stretch coming in 2009, when he missed six games because of an upper-body injury sustained in a fight with Jason Chimera of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Capitals have the day off Tuesday and will practice Wednesday. Their next game is against the Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena in Washington on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; KUSA, MNMT, ALT, SNP, SNO, SNE).
“He’s going to be out for a little bit,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery told 106.7 FM The Fan in Washington on Wednesday. “He’s going to see our doctor’s today and then we’ll have a better idea of timeline and the injury. … This isn’t something where his season is ending. It’s week to week and there will be an update coming soon.”
