Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin out of lineup Saturday with lower-body injury
The leader of the Washington Capitals is not going to play for the first time this season.
Just minutes before their game against the New York Rangers, the Capitals announced captain Alex Ovechkin will be out of the lineup due to a lower-body injury that has been nagging him throughout the week.
The Russian-born superstar, along with Tom Wilson, were game-time decisions for the second game in a row.
Ovechkin has played in every game so far this season, having not missed a contest since April 11 of the 2022-23 campaign.
According to Capitals Outsider, this will be just the 57th time Ovechkin has been out of the lineup, and just the 33rd due to injury. Washington is 24-28-4 when the 38-year-old has not played.
Alex Ovechkin has now missed 57 games in his career, per @CapsOutsider's count. And only 33 due to injury. The #ALLCAPS are 24-28-4 in those games. https://t.co/bI2MvRTCll
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) January 13, 2024
It was a sluggish start for the Capitals and their top gun. Ovechkin did not find the back of the net for a 14-game stretch that carried from November into December, and has scored just three goals since Dec. 20.
In 39 games, the Moscow native has just eight goals and 19 assists. In his quest to try and catch Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record, Ovi has 830 goals in 1,386 games, 64 behind The Great One.
Ovechkin came into this season after scoring 42 goals in 73 games last year, his lowest goals-per-game total since the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season.
He is in the third year of a five-year contract with an AAV of $9.5 million.
Coming into Saturday, the Caps (19-14-6) had dropped three of their last four games, including a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
They are seventh in the Metropolitan Division, nine points ahead of the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets, but three back of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.