Capitals face ‘new endeavor’ without injured Ovechkin

ARLINGTON, Va. — Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL scoring record is on hold due to a lower left leg injury he suffered against the Utah Hockey Club on Monday, and the Washington Capitals are preparing for life without their captain for a yet-to-be- specified time frame.

The Capitals expect to know more about that and the extent of Ovechkin’s injury before their game against the Colorado Avalanche at Capital One Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; KUSA, MNMT, ALT, SNP, SNO, SNE) after the 39-year-old lefty was further evaluated by their doctors on Wednesday.

Ovechkin was listed as week-to-week Tuesday.

“We’re all sad,” Capitals defenseman John Carlson said Wednesday. “We all hope for the fastest recovery from him. He was a big part of our success this year (and) going forward as well. But he will be back.”

Before the third-period collision with Utah forward Jack McBain on Monday that sidelined him, Ovechkin defied his age and led the NHL with 15 goals in 18 games. That included five in his past two games to increase his career total to 868 and close within 27 of Gretzky’s record of 894.

Ovechkin was the oldest player in NHL history to top 15 goals in a season, and the Capitals (13-4-1) thrived with him, leading the Eastern Conference with 27 points. Now they will have to figure out how to get through the emotions of losing him and cope without him.

“He’s the hottest guy in the league. He’s chasing something bigger than hockey,” Washington forward Tom Wilson said. “I think everybody in the hockey world just feels that little bit of failure, that feeling that you just pull for him, and he puts everything he has into it. He feels all that pressure and the entire hockey world is rooting for him. So to come in (the locker room) and see that he was injured, it hurt a little bit as a teammate.

“But at the end of the day it’s hockey. It’s part of the gig, things happen and guys come back from injuries and he’s going to do the same.”

Still, this is uncharted territory for Ovechkin and the Capitals. During his 20 NHL seasons, his longest absence was six games due to a lower-body injury in 2009. In all, he has missed just 59 games, 35 of which were due to injury. He missed five games or fewer in 16 of his previous 19 seasons, and the 11 games he sat out during the COVID-shortened 56-game 2020-21 season (seven for a lower-body injury, four in COVID -protocol) is the most he has missed in any season.

That seems to change with this injury.

“It’s definitely a new endeavor for the organization as a whole,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “But I think for us individually as this team moves forward, he’s — (it goes without saying) a big part of our team on the ice, but also as our captain, leader in the locker room. Everything we act as a team, he is our captain.

“When someone like that loses, it’s important, but now you kind of shift your focus as coaches and as players and as a leadership group to, ‘OK, now, where do we go from here?’

Carbery gave no hints about who will replace Ovechkin on the top line with Aliaksei Protas and Dylan Strome, saying only that the coaches were considering “a couple of different scenarios.” Possibilities include Andrew Mangiapane, Jakub Vrana, Taylor Raddysh and rookie Ivan Miroshnichenko, who was called up from Hershey of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.

Regardless, the Capitals believe they have the depth to handle Ovechkin’s absence.

Bolstered by offseason additions to their forward line — Pierre-Luc Dubois, Brandon Duhaime, Mangiapane, Vrana and Raddysh — and breakout performances from Strome, Protas and Connor McMichael, the Capitals lead the NHL in scoring at 4.33 goals per game. season after finishing 28th in the league with an average of 2.63 goals per game last season.

Strome leads Washington with 28 points (six goals, 22 assists) in 18 games ahead of Ovechkin, who has 25 points. McMichael is second on the Capitals with 12 goals — already two-thirds of his NHL career-high 18 goals last season — and third with 19 points in 18 games. Protas is fourth with 18 points (NHL career-high seven goals, 11 assists) in 18 games.

“It’s hard to lose our top scorer and he’s definitely our leader and a big guy in the dressing room, but I think if we want to be successful as a group, now it’s going to be a good test to show what we can do.” do,” Protas said. “We’ve got to find a way to continue to play our game and somebody else is going to have to step up, and that’s a good thing.”

There may also be an emotional hurdle for the Capitals to overcome. Ovechkin is such a fixture and positive force in their locker room. Although Carbery initially described Ovechkin as being “a little bit upset” about his injury, he also expected that to change quickly.

“As you’ve come to know, he’s a pretty positive guy and an infectious personality who will look on the bright side and find the positive in any situation,” Carbery said.

The positives for the Capitals include that Ovechkin is expected to play again this season, according to Carbery. Their job is to play well enough for him to return to a team that is still thriving and has a good spot in the standings.

“He’s our captain, he’s a big part of this team – obviously we’re missing a big player,” Vrana said. “I think we are aware of that and we will go out and do our best to win games without him.”

Still, even Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is disappointed that he won’t be playing Ovechkin on Thursday and that his record chase is on hold.

“Growing up, I was a big fan of him and Sid (Crosby), obviously, with that great rivalry,” said MacKinnon, who leads the NHL with 34 points (seven goals, 27 assists) in 19 games this season. “So I definitely still feel like I’m a fan of his in a lot of ways and watching him dominate. He’s not just limping into this record, he dominated and he went for a Rocket (Richard Trophy for most goals in a season) .So it (stinks) he’s out for a few weeks, but hopefully he can come back sooner than they say and keep chasing it.

“But it (stinks) we’re not playing him tomorrow night, for sure.”