The Washington Capitals will be without the greatest goal scorer in hockey history against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday afternoon.
During his pre-game media availability, Caps head coach Spencer Carbery revealed that Alex Ovechkin will take the game off. There are no injury concerns for the 39-year-old winger, but he did not take the trip to Columbus and will be replaced in the team’s lineup by Ethen Frank.
“[Ovechkin] will be out,” Carbery said. “I’m not going to go through all the lines, but Frank will come in.”
The game will only be the 76th of Ovechkin’s 20-season NHL career that he has missed and the 17th this season after breaking his leg in November. The Capitals’ captain was at Capital One Arena on Friday afternoon for the Gr8 City Celebration, where Caps fans were able to further celebrate Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record last Sunday and see the goal-scoring GOAT get handed a literal goat.
Ovechkin is the Capitals’ second-leading point scorer this season, recording 70 points (42g, 28a) in 62 games. He had recently been skating on the team’s top line with Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh and has 10 points (6g, 4a) in his last six games.
Frank has not played in over a month, last seeing the ice in a 5-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on March 7. The 27-year-old winger made his NHL debut earlier this season on January 10 and has posted seven points (4g, 3a) in 22 total games.
Jakob Chychrun will also miss his second straight game due to illness. Dylan McIlrath filled in for him against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, but Alexander Alexeyev will do so against the Blue Jackets on Saturday. Alexeyev has yet to dress in a game in 2025, last playing 12:43 of ice time against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 8.
Neither Logan Thompson nor Aliaksei Protas have skated this week due to their respective injuries. With Thompson still out of commission, the Capitals will go with Hunter Shepard in net for the first half of their back-to-back against Columbus.
Shepard will make his fifth career NHL start after he made four last season, posting a 2-1-1 record with a 3.19 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage. In 37 AHL games for the Hershey Bears this year, Shepard is 22-11-3 with a 2.81 goals-against average and a .891 save percentage.
The Blue Jackets are clinging onto very small playoff hopes in the Eastern Conference, likely needing to win all four of their remaining games and see the Montreal Canadiens lose all three of their final games. Columbus is just 5-5 in their last 10 but have won two games in a row.
