Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of the NHL’s all-time goals record is on hold for the foreseeable future.
The Washington Capitals captain is considered week to week with a lower-body injury, the team announced Tuesday, after he took an accidental knee-on-knee hit from Utah Hockey Club forward Jack McBain during Monday’s 6-2 victory.
Ovechkin stayed down on the ice following the collision and later had trouble putting weight on his left leg as he hobbled down the tunnel toward the team’s dressing room.
He will undergo further evaluation by team doctors on Wednesday.
INJURY UPDATE: Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin sustained an injury to his lower leg during last night’s game in Utah, and is listed as week to week. Ovechkin will have further evaluation with team physicians in DC on Wednesday.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 19, 2024
The injury comes with the 39-year-old off to the best goal-scoring start of his career with 15 goals through 18 games. That’s the most he tallied through 18 games during any of his 20 NHL seasons.
Ovechkin scored twice in Utah before hurting his lower leg, pulling two goals ahead of the Florida Panthers’ Sam Reinhart and Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl as this season’s leading goal scorer so far, and adding more fuel to the growing hype around his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record.
Ovechkin now sits at 868 career goals — 27 behind Gretzky’s vaunted mark of 894, a number that was starting to appear well within reach for the Capitals sniper this season given his red-hot start.
Now that’s in question with Ovechkin nursing an injury.
Durability has been a hallmark of Ovechkin’s career — nearly as much so as his prolific goal-scoring. Ovechkin missed four or fewer games in 15 of his NHL campaigns and never sat out more than the 11 games he was sidelined during the 2020-21 season because of a lower-body injury and a COVID-19-related absence.
That put him in position to make this season a special one.
Virtually every Ovechkin goal scored over the past month seemed to come attached with a new milestone or special significance. With his hat trick in Vegas on Sunday, he became the first NHL player aged 39 or older to score 11 goals in a 10-game span. When he beat Utah’s Connor Ingram on Monday, he tied Jaromir Jagr for the NHL record by scoring against his 178th different goaltender.
“He’s been phenomenal this year,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery told reporters in Utah. “Leading the charge in our team, not only from a leadership standpoint and in the locker room, but on the ice as well. When you get in these types of games, you need guys to step up and score or make a big play, and he’s continued to do that.
“Off to a phenomenal start this year.”
(Photo: Rob Gray / USA Today)
