Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin is a game time decision

Alex Ovechkin injured himself just days ago in the preseason finale against the Philadelphia Flyers after a hit on Travis Konecny. At the Washington Capitals morning skate on Wednesday, Ovechkin took the ice and it looked gruesome. But we all know Ovechkin is a Russian machine that doesn’t break.

He skated in the optional practice on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning he took the ice and skated in his familiar spot on the top line like nothing even happened to him. It looked like he was in the lineup, however, he told the media that he is a game time decision.

“Yeah, you can write that on the Twitter,” he said.

If Ovechkin can’t play look for Connor McMichael to skate in his spot. In goalie news, Peter Laviolette announced that Vitek Vanecek would get the start tonight over Ilya Samsonov. Tonight we will also see the NHL debut of Hendrix Lapierre, more on that later.

With that being said, here’s what the lines looked like at morning skate:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Mantha-Eller-Sprong
Sheary-Lapierre-Oshie
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervary-Carlson
TvR-Schultz
Orlov-Jensen

If Ovechkin does play tonight, the chase kicks off in front of a national TV audience. He’s got 730 goals in his career and is two goals shy of passing Marcel Dionne (731 goals) for fifth place on the NHL’s all time goals list.

Ovechkin has 269 career power play goals which is second in the league. He needs five to tie Dave Andreychuk (274 PPG). He also has 116 game winning goals which is ranked fourth. He needs three to pass Phil Esposito (118 game winning goals) for third.

Ovechkin also needs 165 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky (894 goals) as the NHL’s all time leading goal scorer. His contract extension he signed over the summer consists of five seasons. He’ll need to average at least 33 goals a season to reach that mark.

We will know whether or not Ovechkin plays tonight if he’s on the ice for warmups. If he’s not, he gets a night off.