Washington Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin has been ruled out 4-6 weeks Capitals PR confirmed after undergoing further evaluation with team doctors.
This came after a selfish play from Jack McBain on Monday night against the brand new Utah Hockey Club moments after Alex Ovechkin scored twice to pull him to within 26 goals of a certain record.
The reactions on Twitter/X were mixed, some calling for McBain and others with words of support and encouragement from the Great 8.
Not only does this news shock DC but the hockey world as well. Here's a crazy stat via Mike Vogel of WashCaps.com on the breakdown of the injury as well as missing a total of 59 games in 20 seasons.
15 injury absences which equates to 35 games, six suspensions which is 10 games, three personal which is seven games, three illness for six games all COVID, and ONE scratch in the regular season finale of the 2015-16 season. Adding last night's loss to the Colorado Avalanche into the equation, Washington is 26-29-5 without him and 4-14-0 overall. The highest injury absense was six games in November 2009.
Here's another crazy stat to include DC sports via Barstool DMV.
Those three. Wow. And the creepy part about the Joe Thiseman and Alex Smith injuries was that they happened in similar positions on the field albieit one game was at the old RFK Stadium while the other was at the currently named Northwest Statium formerlly called FedEx Field. Ovi joins that list of Nov. 18 courtesy of McBain. This research also came via Jeff K.
Overchkin led the Caps in expected goals at 0.47 per Sportlogiq. Connor McMichael is second at 0.41, Pierre-Luc Dubois at 0.32, Tom Wilson at 0.31, Nic Dowd at 0.22 entering Thursday's contest. Ovi was ranked third on inner slot shots at 12 behind only Tom Wilson with 18 and Connor McMichael with 23.
The Caps already experienced life without Ovi in the form of a loss to Colorado. That is coming up next.