The Washington Capitals announced an injury update on Alex Ovechkin, Tuesday. The team listed the 39-year-old winger week-to-week with a lower leg injury after he collided with Utah HC’s Jack McBain on Monday night and finished the game in the locker room.
The two-sentence update from the club received some clarification from head coach Spencer Carbery on Wednesday morning. Carbery was pressed for further details by 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies and reluctantly expanded upon what is known about the severity of Ovechkin’s injury.
“I think week-to-week is pretty accurate,” Carbery said. “I just think our doctors want to see him, want to assess the injury, and then we’ll go from there. I don’t think anybody wants to come out and say it’s going to be this, this, and this. We just want to make sure that everything is accurate and that anything that’s put out there isn’t just hearsay or inaccurate.”
After moving away from the topic for several minutes, the Junkies brought it back up and were able to pull some more positive news out of the second-year bench boss. Carbery was asked if it was time to panic regarding Ovechkin’s availability for the rest of the season and balked at that suggestion.
“Yeah, this isn’t something where his season is ending,” Carbery said. “It’s week-to-week, and there will be an update coming soon.”
Carbery gave his take on the play after having the ability to watch it back several times.
“Yeah, it was [an accident],” Carbery said. “It was an unfortunate collision. I watched it a bunch, and you’re looking to see if there’s any type of purposeful contact from McBain.
“I don’t know, I just think he gets a little bit out of control with his skating, and his route, and where he was. He was a little bit reckless there, but I don’t think anything, when I watched it back, was purposeful.”
Carbery also revealed that the team is planning a recall ahead of Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. Options to come up from Hershey include Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ethen Frank, Pierrick Dubé, and Mike Sgarbossa.
