Alex Ovechkin did some light skating on Monday for the first time since he fractured his left fibula in a match with the Utah Hockey Club on November 18th. The Washington Capitals announced on November 21 that Ovechkin would miss 4-6 weeks after his leg collided with Utah forward Jack McBain.
But, he skated before practice on Monday while Capitals athletic trainer Jason Serbus observed from the bench.
“It was nice to see,” coach Spencer Carbery said. “Just the first step. No timeline updates or anything like that. This is just a step in the progression of him coming back.”
Ovechkin will miss his seventh match in a row when Washington welcomes San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena on Tuesday. This will make it his longest absence, passing the six straight he missed when he had an upper body injury from November 4-14, 2009.
The injury halted his race to beat Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals. He was leading the league with 15 goals in 18 matches this year. Before his injury, Ovechkin raised his 868 and closed within 27 goals of passing Gretzky.
Washington is 4-2-0 without Ovechkin, including victories in each of its past four matches.
“I just don’t think we rely on any one player,” forward Lars Eller said. “We’re a four-line team — four lines, three (defense) pairs, two goalies — like a really complete team in terms of getting contributions from everybody in different ways. That’s our strength.”
