One of the NHL’s biggest stars will be out for a significant period of time.
Alex Ovechkin has a fracture to his left fibula and is expected to miss four to six weeks in an early-season gut punch for the Capitals.
The Capitals star was originally placed on injured reserved and listed as week-to-week after he collided with Utah forward Jack McBain during the third period of Monday’s game on the road.
It puts Ovechkin’s season on pause at a time where he’s not only scoring goals at a prodigious pace, but also at a point where he is nearing NHL history.
With his five goals over the last two games, Ovechkin has 15 goals in 18 games this season, and, for his career, he’s at 868 goals — only 27 behind Wayne Gretzky for the all-time NHL record.
Now, the 39-year-old will miss at least a month as he nears the historic mark.
“Everyone’s bummed out,” forward Tom Wilson told reporters Thursday. “We were sitting there saying: ‘This is weird. Like, it’s unbelievable that he’s actually hurt.’ It’s one of those things where like, he’s going to miss games? I’ve been around a long time, and it’s new to me.”
The stretch will almost undoubtedly be the longest period of games he’ll miss in his North American career, as he’s only sat out 35 games due to injury over his 20 seasons in the NHL.
According to NHL.com, the most consecutive games he’s missed was six when he was dealing with an upper-body injury in November 2009.
Even after two decades in the league, the three-time Hart Trophy winner has been a huge part of the Capitals’ success this year, as his 25 points rank second on the team only behind Dylan Strome.
Entering Thursday’s action, the Capitals are second in the Metropolitan Division, just one point behind first-place Carolina.