It’s difficult to pick out just one low point of Washington’s 5-0 blowout loss to Carolina on Monday, but if there’s any sight guaranteed to make a Caps fan’s heart sink, it’s Alex Ovechkin limping to the locker room.

There was a great deal of confusion as to what actually happened that night, but Dale Hunter set the record straight Wednesday morning — Ovechkin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

As you can see in the video, Ovechkin takes a hip check from the Hurricanes’ Bryan Allen, which is presumably when the injury occurred — he left the ice soon afterward and skated minimal time the rest of the game, ending the night with only 15:43 of ice time, his second lowest total of the year.

After the loss, Ovechkin was seen limping. He skated before the rest of the team on Wednesday morning and appeared to be testing something out. Whatever he was looking for, he didn’t seem to find it — he tried a few bursts of speed on open ice and had to pull up short before leaving the ice again for good. Altogether, he skated only eight minutes during practice, and was declared day-to-day before being scratched for the game against Ottawa.

“I don’t feel really good right now,” a dejected Ovechkin told WaPo’s Katie Carerra before he was whisked away from reporters.

Russian machine never breaks, but sometimes gets bruised.

Also, sometimes, he needs a tailor.

Photo credit: @directors_take

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