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Alex Ovechkin day-to-day with a lower-body injury

By Chris Cerullo

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October 10, 2021 10:00 am

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He will miss Sunday’s practice.

The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell reported the news on Twitter.

Ovechkin 36, only skated two minutes and 19 seconds against the Flyers in preseason action Friday night. The Great Eight left the ice after delivering a hit on Flyers forward Travis Konecny. Ovi came up lame and hobbled to the locker room after his left leg connected awkwardly with Konecny.

The Capitals announced after the first period that Ovechkin would not return to the game.

“He wasn’t going to come back tonight,” Laviolette said when asked whether Ovechkin’s removal was just precautionary. “They’ll look at it, the doctors, our training staff will look at it and they’ll make a decision on where he’s at.”

Ovechkin, one of the most durable power forwards in NHL history, dealt with several minor injuries throughout last season, missing seven games in late April and early May due to a lower-body injury.

A Capitals team that is already missing star center Nicklas Backstrom could now open their season without both Ovechkin and Backstrom. The team has never been without both of them in a season opener since Backstrom debuted in 2006.

Update (10:58 AM): Ovechkin was spotted in street clothes near the bench during practice and according to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, he had no limp.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

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