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Peter Laviolette is unsure when Alex Ovechkin will return: ‘We’ll err on the side of caution at this point in the season’

By Ian Oland

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April 25, 2021 1:42 am

Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette addressed Alex Ovechkin’s absence after the team’s 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders, Saturday.

It was only the 17th game Ovi missed in his career due to injury.

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“I think with some injuries you don’t know what’s gonna go on,” Laviolette said. “Whether somebody’s going to be available or not available. That’s why people say day-to-day because they’re unsure. Will he be there for the next game? I’m not sure at this point. We’ll err on the side of caution at this point in the season. We’re not going to risk anything as we head towards the playoffs, but hopefully, he continues to improve.”

Ovechkin came up lame in the third period of Thursday’s game and missed all of overtime. Friday, the Capitals said he was out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He has not practiced since suffering his injury.

Ovi was spotted only once by cameras during the night: in a grey suit for Zdeno Chara’s 1600 games team photo in the locker room.

Daniel Sprong, who previously sat out, stepped in for Ovechkin on the Capitals’ first line and scored twice.

After the game, the Dutch winger was named second star of the game.

“We had put Spronger up there just because I didn’t want to disrupt anything else,” Laviolette said. “He’s a goal scorer. He should play in the top six position because of his skillset. Instead of messing all of the lines up — I really liked how we played — I just thought it would be simple to move him into that spot. We talked about whether or not he played left wing in the past. He said he had. I thought he played a real good game. He was dangerous. He was attacking the game with speed as well. Willy provided some physicality to the line. I thought it was really good. We were able to keep the lines intact and got contributions from everywhere. That line was good in Alex’s absence.”

Laviolette was asked if this was a statement game from his players without Ovi.

“I don’t know if it was a statement,” Laviolette said. “I just really liked the way we played five periods of hockey. I didn’t like the first period (Thursday). I think we’re shaking three days off. We haven’t had three days off in forever so maybe three days feels like 10 days. So you completely decompress, unwind, get away from the game and it took a minute to get back to it. Once we got back to it, I thought we were really really strong for five periods of hockey.”

The Capitals’ next game is Tuesday – the team’s third straight game against the Isles. The game will be the Capitals’ first tilt at home with fans at Capital One Arena.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Islanders

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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