Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is nearing the four-to-six-week return window initially outlined for him when he suffered a left fibula fracture last month. After skating in a non-contact jersey at apply over the previous week, head coach Spencer Carbery mentioned the famous person winger received’t play Friday in opposition to the Hurricanes however might return Sunday in opposition to the Kings or on Monday versus the Bruins. Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relayed the data.
Coming into the season, doubt was starting to creep in over whether or not Ovechkin might move Wayne Gretzky’s all-time targets document of 894. His 31 targets in 79 video games final yr was his lowest complete in a full season because the 2016-17 marketing campaign.
These doubts had been silenced inside weeks. The Caps received off to a raucous begin, fueled partly by Ovi’s 15 targets and 25 factors by his first 18 video games of the season. He performed his greatest hockey of the season till the harm, recording seven targets and two assists in his final 5 video games. Sadly, an innocuous knee-on-knee collision with Utah ahead Jack McBain hit pause on his chase for the document. He’s nonetheless 26 snipes again of tying Gretzky, sitting alone in second in NHL historical past with 868 targets. He’d have 50 video games to attain the rest if he plans on tying the document in 2024-25, assuming he returns Sunday.
Dropping Ovechkin for the final month hasn’t considerably impacted Washington’s document. They’re nonetheless 8-4-1 of their final 13 with out him, outscoring opponents 40-33 and outshooting them 380-337. They’ve continued to dominate possession at even energy, controlling 56.5% of shot makes an attempt throughout that window. They’ve solely continued to ascertain themselves as shock championship contenders after limping into the playoffs final yr with a 40-31-11 document and a -36 objective differential.
Ovechkin had been flanked by staff assists chief Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas on the primary line earlier than exiting the lineup. Protas has been moved right down to Pierre-Luc Dubois’ line in Ovechkin’s absence. Whereas The Nice Eight will undoubtedly reunite with Strome in his return, he might have Tom Wilson on his reverse wing this time.
Ovechkin is on injured reserve, and because the Capitals have a full lively roster, they’ll seemingly transfer Thursday forward of the midnight roster freeze to unencumber an area for him to return within the subsequent few days. Carbery informed Silber that Ovechkin will take contact in apply both Friday or Saturday.
