Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Ovechkin left last night’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Flyers when he fell awkwardly after laying a hit on Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny.
Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic notes that Ovechkin was seen walking around the Capitals’ facility this morning without a brace, wrap, or limp.
The fact that Ovechkin is walking around without assistance so soon is extremely promising, especially when considering how dangerous the fall looked at first glance. While his day-to-day status still puts his availability for their home opener against the New York Rangers on Wednesday in doubt, a long-term absence now seems extremely unlikely at this point. Capitals forward Lars Eller had this to say on Ovechkin’s health:
I never seen [the Russian machine] break. And it gets repaired pretty quickly. It’s not broke for long.
If Ovechkin can’t play on opening night, the Capitals would be without their two best forwards. Center Nicklas Backstrom remains sidelined with a hip injury with no timetable for a return.
The 36-year-old Russian enters the 2021-22 campaign with 730 career goals, good enough for sixth all-time and just one goal behind Marcel Dionne, who holds fifth place. Ovechkin had led the league in scoring for seven out of the past nine seasons, only losing out on the Rocket Richard trophy in 2016-17 (Sidney Crosby) and 2020-21 (Auston Matthews).