Alex Ovechkin is already back in his skates just two weeks after breaking his leg against the Utah Hockey Club.
Per Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir, Ovechkin got on the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in a tracksuit well ahead of Monday morning’s practice. The skate comes after the Capitals announced on November 21 that their captain would be sidelined for four to six weeks with his injury.
Alex Ovechkin has started skating lightly. Here he is, in a track suit, (way) ahead of this morning’s practice. (h/t @MonSportsNet photog Greg Abernathy) #Caps pic.twitter.com/aSr7brPQxa
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) December 2, 2024
“It was nice to see,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said after practice.
“Just the first step. No timeline updates or anything like that. This is just a step in the progression of him coming back.”
The fibula is a minor weight-bearing bone so Ovechkin has been able to walk without a brace or crutches. The injury did not require surgery, and Ovechkin recently traveled with the Capitals on their annual Mentors’ Trip to Florida.
Ovechkin had scored a league-leading 15 goals through the first 18 games of the 2024-25 season, the highest goals-per-game rate of his career (0.83). He was on pace to score a career-high 68 goals and shatter Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record by mid-season. He left the lineup with 868 career goals, 26 shy of tying Gretzky for a share of the record.
Washington has gone 4-2 in the six games without Ovechkin and recently moved to the top of the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference after a 6-5 win over the New Jersey Devils. The six consecutive games out of the lineup ties Ovechkin’s most extended spell out of action in his career.
Ovechkin missed six consecutive games during the 2009-10 campaign with an “upper-body strain” after a scrum involving Jason Chimera and seven games collectively at the end of the 2020-21 season with a nagging “lower-body injury” (he did dress for one game before leaving the lineup again during that stretch).
If the superstar winger is out four weeks from the day of the injury, Ovechkin will miss at least 12 games. If his timeline extends to six weeks, he’ll miss 18.
