Washington Capitals announce Alex Ovechkin has fractured fibula; will miss four to six weeks

Ovechkin was injured in a shin-on-rail collision with Utah’s Jack McBain on Monday night. The 39-year-old winger went down in obvious pain, then tried to skate and test the leg minutes later before limping down the tunnel.

The team placed Ovechkin on injured reserve Wednesday before further tests confirmed the severity of the injury.

“He’s the hottest guy in the league and he’s chasing something bigger than hockey,” longtime teammate Tom Wilson said after practice Wednesday.

“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. The whole hockey world is just rooting for him. So to come into (the locker room) and see that he was hurt, it hurt a little bit as a teammate, but at the end of the day, that’s hockey.”

Ovechkin has 15 goals in 18 games this season, and his 868 career NHL goals trails record holder Wayne Gretzky by 26.

Before suffering the injury, Ovechkin was on pace to break Gretzky’s record for a while in February. It will now have to wait while the veteran rehabilitates from the injury.