Alex Ovechkin missed his first game of the 2023-24 season when the Washington Capitals took down the New York Rangers 3-2 inside Capital One Arena. Ovechkin has been battling a lower-body injury for a little over a week now and was finally taken out of game action by it on Saturday.
Head coach Spencer Carbery labeled Ovechkin a game-time decision just hours before puck drop but Ovechkin did not take the warmup skate. Carbery was then asked postgame to give another update on his captain.
He revealed that The Great Eight would be traveling with the team to New York for the back half of their set of games against the Rangers and could dress for that second matinee matchup on Sunday.
“Yeah, it’s an outside chance,” Carbery said. “But I think there is a chance that he plays tomorrow.
“To my knowledge, [he is traveling]. I don’t want to speak out of turn, but to my knowledge he is.”
Ovechkin is the team’s leading scorer this season with 27 points (8g, 19a) in 39 games. Last season, he missed nine total games and the Capitals posted a very poor 1-8 record without him.
The Capitals managed to stave off that sort of lackluster effort on Saturday. They came back from two, separate one-goal deficits and scored twice in the third period to seal their second win in three tries so far this season against the Rangers.
Carbery was asked about the effect of not having Ovechkin on the ice in regards to others having to step up in his place.
“Guys feel like they know everybody’s got to do a little bit more to slot some guys in some different situations, specifically power play,” Carbery said. “But even on that Strome line, Osh goes into that; I thought that line was real good today. [They] had some really good sequences where they just missed – had a couple really good looks. So yeah, on notice: it just makes guys go, ‘Okay, we really need to dig in tonight.’ Everybody’s got to do a little bit more.”
TJ Oshie, who Carbery directly pointed out as having to pick up some slack, scored the game-winning goal in the game after being moved to the first line due to Ovechkin’s absence. Oshie echoed some of his bench boss’ comments when describing the feeling in the team’s locker room when they know they’ll be without their leader.
“That’s a massive hole to try to fill and a massive presence on the bench, on the ice, and in our locker room,” Oshie said. “So everyone needs to give a little bit extra when Big Eight isn’t out there with us. We miss him and we’re hoping we get him back real soon.”
The Capitals are now 3-3 to start the new year. They’ll head to New York to take on the Rangers in a building where they were dealt a 5-1 loss coming out of the holiday break. Getting Ovechkin back in their lineup would be a great boost as the Rangers are one of eight NHL franchises that he has scored 20 or more road goals against in his career.
If Ovechkin does feature, he’ll be looking to extend his current point streak to seven games.
