NHL insider Delivers Crushing News On Alex Ovechkin's Injury; Making Gretzky's Record Chase Even Tougher
NHL insider Chris Johnston gave us an unfortunate update on Alex Ovechkin's status today after he was injured in his last game against the Utah HC.
The Capitals placed Ovechkin on injured reserve yesterday which was our first indication that this is indeed a serious injury.
Ovi suffered the injury in a collision with Utah HC forward Jack McBain during the 3rd period Monday night.
Now we have gotten more news on the matter. According to Chris Johnston, the Russian goal-scorer has a fractured left fibula and will miss at least four weeks.
As he points out, this will be the longest stretch of his career that he has missed due to injury. It seems as though the Russian machine can break after all.
Shortly after Johnston's post, the Capitals confirmed the news themselves, saying that the great eight will be out 4-6 weeks.
The Capitals have approximately 20 games in that time span. Including their game tonight, they have 20 contests between now and January 2nd, meaning Ovechkin could miss nearly a quarter of the season.
If Ovechkin were to return on the 2nd, that would give him just 45 games left in the season to break Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record, a feat he was hoping to accomplish this year.
With 15 goals through 18 games, it seemed certain that he would do it. However, he still needs 26 to tie and 27 to set the new record.
Can he score 27 goals in 45 games? Based on his scoring so far this season, it still seems doable.
Can we really expect him to keep up that pace, especially after recovering from a serious injury though? This is his first major injury of his career, so we do not know what to expect.
Hopefully, when he returns it will be like nothing ever happened. We can also hope that he will return sooner than expected. Until then though, we will just have to wait to witness history.
