The Washington Capitals were pummeled by the Vegas Golden Knights 6-2 on Saturday as they played without their captain for the first time this season.

Alex Ovechkin missed the Capitals’ morning skate at T-Mobile Arena — the Capitals said it was a maintenance day — but ultimately Ovi could not suit up later in the night. The Capitals officially termed their Russian superstar day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

#Caps captain Alex Ovechkin will not play tonight vs Vegas and is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 22, 2023

After the game, head coach Peter Laviolette gave a brief update on Ovechkin.

When asked if Ovi would play Tuesday against the Colorado Avalance, Laviolette said that he was unsure.

“I don’t have an answer for that,” Laviolette said. “Obviously he wasn’t there tonight. There’s a couple days between games. That’s a good thing. But we’ll see how he is tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”

The Capitals have the day off on Sunday before a scheduled practice on Monday.

“There are always things that are going on with players,” Laviolette said when asked if Ovechkin was hurt Friday against Arizona. “Alex is usually really durable but this is something that… you know, he wasn’t able to skate this morning and took him out of the lineup tonight.”

While Laviolette wasn’t sure about Ovechkin’s return, he was very certain about how the team performed against the Golden Knights.

“We weren’t good,” Laviolette said. “They were the better team and we’ll get ready for the next one here. There are things we can go back and try to get better at.”

Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB