Alex Ovechkin reportedly played with knee and hamstring injuries
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin reportedly played through a knee and hamstring injury during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Washington Capitals are out of the postseason once again. A huge part of it is their captain Alex Ovechkin was never really himself in the postseason. The usually explosive, powerful superstar looked hurt and simply seemed off. Earlier, it was reported Ovechkin wouldn’t be playing at the World Championships due to an injury. Team Russia’s head coach Oleg Znarok went in depth in a recent interview. Russian Machine Never Breaks translated the interview from Russian to English.
"“[Ovi] always comes to play for Russia,” Znarok said. “But in this case he played injured, on injections… his knee and hamstring. So naturally he said there is only 25 spots on the roster, I don’t want to undermine the team. I appreciate his candor.”"
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Anyone who knows Ovechkin knows he takes a lot of pride in playing for his country. He’s arguably Russia’s most famous athlete and certainly one of its most passionate about representing his country. Ovechkin backing out of an opportunity to do so tells you how bad he’s really hurting.
Fans might never know much about how he got injured. But it’s not hard to connect the dots and realize it likely happened in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Specifically, Ovechkin’s injury probably occurred when Nazem Kadri clipped him in Game 5. There’s no way to know for sure unless the captain or the Capitals open up. But understandably, Ovechkin (and the team) might never do so.
Until Kardi’s hit, he was his usual self. However, you could tell he wasn’t 100 percent from this point forward. Ovechkin came back strong in Game 5, but what likely happened is he woke up with a ton of pain shortly thereafter.
This just goes to show you should wait until you get all the details before jumping to conclusions. Lots of hot takes were written about how Ovechkin didn’t show up. It’s impressive he was able to handle playing over 15 minutes a night after such a horrible hit.