Ovechkin out 4-6 weeks for Capitals with broken leg

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Alex Ovechkin will miss 4-6 weeks with a fractured left fibula, the Washington Capitals announced Thursday.

Ovechkin was injured on a leg-to-leg collision with Utah Hockey Club forward Jack McBain 5:30 into the third period of Washington's 6-2 victory on Monday. The Capitals (13-6-1) initially announced Tuesday that the 39-year-old left wing would be out week to week pending further evaluation by the team's doctors on Wednesday.

The absence will be the longest of Ovechkin's career. His longest previous stretch was when he missed six games because of an upper-body injury from Nov. 4-14, 2009.

“It’s an unfortunate injury any time you lose your captain, any time you lose a player that is having the year he’s having and playing as well as he’s playing," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said after a 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. "He’s such a big part of our team, but, OK, he’ll back at some point for us. Now, we just need other guys to do more, and we’re going to need everybody, the coaches included, to do a little bit more.”

During his 20 NHL seasons, Ovechkin has missed only 59 games, including 35 because of injury. He missed five games or fewer in 16 of his previous 19 seasons and the 11 games he sat out during the COVID-shortened 56-game 2020-21 season (seven for a lower-body injury, four while in COVID protocol) are the most he's missed in any season.

"We were sitting there saying like, 'This is weird. Like, it's unbelievable that he's actually hurt,'" Capitals right wing Tom Wilson said Wednesday. "It's one of those things where like, 'He's going to miss games?' It's new to me. He doesn't go out there and just coast around. He's played for 20 years every shift, running over guys and skating. You know, he's a power forward, the best goal-scorer ever maybe, and he's a power forward that plays the game really hard. It's been amazing.

"I'm sure he's going to be back stronger than ever and flying around soon."

Ovechkin's injury pauses his chase of the Wayne Gretzky's NHL record of 894 goals. With an NHL-leading 15 goals in his first 18 games this season, Ovechkin raised his career total to 868 and closed within 27 goals of surpassing Gretzky.

Ovechkin was the oldest player in NHL history to be the first to reach 15 goals in a season.

"He's not just limping into this record, he was dominating, and he was going for a Rocket (Richard Trophy for most goals in a season)," Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. "So, it [stinks] he's out for a few weeks, but hopefully he can get back quicker than they say and keep on chasing it."