Capitals star Alex Ovechkin out 4-6 weeks with broken fibula

Alex Ovechkin has a broken left fibula and is expected to be out four to six weeks, an injury that halts the Washington Capitals superstar captain’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goal record.

The Capitals updated Ovechkin’s status Thursday after he was evaluated by team doctors as he returned from a three-game trip. The 39-year-old broke his leg in a shin-on-shin collision Monday night with Utah’s Jack McBain, and some of his closest teammates knew it wasn’t good news even before Ovechkin was listed as week-to-week and placed on injured reserve reserve.

“Everybody’s hurt,” said winger Tom Wilson, who has played with Ovechkin since 2013. “We were sitting there going, ‘This is weird. It’s like unbelievable that he’s actually hurt.’ It’s one of those things where he’s going to miss games I’ve been with for a long time and it’s new to me.”

In his first 19 seasons, Ovechkin missed 59 games – and only 35 due to injury. Durability, even when throwing his body around with his physical style, is a big reason he’s on pace to pass Gretzky’s 894-goal mark that once looked unapproachable.

“He doesn’t go out there and just drive around,” Wilson said. “He’s played 20 years every shift and run over guys and skates. He’s a power forward, the greatest scorer ever, and he’s a power forward who plays the game really hard.”

Ovechkin rose to the top of the league with 15 goals in his first 18 games this season. He was in the process of breaking the record and scoring no. 895 sometime in February.

“You know when scorers start scoring, it’s dangerous,” said defenseman John Carlson, who has been teammates with Ovechkin since 2009-10. “There was a little bit of that in the downs that everybody felt it too, of course. We see him come on the field every day, we know what’s at stake. You never want anybody to get hurt, but there’s a lot , it has to, and certainly he played his best hockey in years.”