Washington Capitals fans will not see Alex Ovechkin play in Hershey for tonight’s preseason matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers due to a lower-body injury. But, head coach Spencer Carbery does want to get the team’s captain into two exhibition games this fall — ideally one home and one away — ahead of the regular season’s Opening Night.
“What I have in my head is hoping to get him into one road, one home exhibition game to give him two,” Carbery told reporters Thursday morning. “Is it the end-all, be-all for him to play two exhibition games? No. But that would be the ideal world is he gets two games before the start of the year.”
Ovechkin has yet to be a full participant in any training camp skates since leaving the first day of camp early.
Carbery said Ovechkin skated ahead of Thursday’s practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex as he has done the last two days. The Capitals’ bench boss is “hoping” to see the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer join the rest of his teammates by the end of this week.
If Ovechkin is going to play in both a home and away preseason game, the Capitals only have four more opportunities to make that happen. The team plays at the New Jersey Devils on Sunday, Sept. 28 followed by a road trip to Columbus on Tuesday and then a brief home stand for rematches against the Boston Bruins (Oct. 2) and Blue Jackets (Oct. 4).
Ovechkin was unconcerned about the severity of his injury when asked about it last week, and spent most of Tuesday doing promotional work for his new cereal, “Ovi’s Great Crunch,” at a local Giant supermarket.
Carbery was encouraged by Ovechkin’s consistent appearances on the ice in recent days.
“First step in getting back into the practices,” Carbery said Tuesday. “We’ll see [about tomorrow]. Have to talk to Serbs (head trainer Jason Serbus) and see what the plan is, but back on the ice is a good thing.”
The Capitals’ regular-season opener against the Bruins is scheduled for October 8 at Capital One Arena.
