Alex Ovechkin is on the brink of NHL history, just nine goals shy of claiming the league’s all-time goals record. While Ovechkin is on pace to reach the 895 career goal mark this year, his journey was temporarily stopped after suffering the worst injury of his career earlier in the season.
Ovechkin broke his leg colliding with Jack McBain during the Washington Capitals’ 6-2 victory over the Utah Hockey Club on November 18. At the time of the injury, Ovechkin led the league in goals with 15 and had scored five times in his last two games.
The Capitals captain recently spoke about the incident in an interview with Sport-Express’ Igor Rabiner, detailing how he felt about the play and having to put his potentially record-breaking season on pause for 16 games.
“It is what it is – I got injured,” Ovechkin said to Rabiner as translated by Google Translate. “Of course, it was a shame, a pity. Because in fact, our line played well. We were constantly scoring points, the team was winning.”
Before Ovechkin was forced out of action, the Capitals’ top line, also featuring Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas, was arguably the best in the entire NHL. Through 18 games at five-on-five, they had controlled 55.6 percent of shot attempts, 53.6 percent of expected goals, 54.6 percent of scoring chances, and 56.2 percent of high-danger chances when on the ice together.
The line turned their process stats into success onto the scoresheet too, outscoring their opposition 16-5. All three players were also playing at or above a point-per-game pace: Ovechkin had 25 points (15g, 10a), Strome had 28 points (6g, 22a) and Protas had 18 points (7g, 11a).
Ovechkin’s injury meant that their chemistry and perhaps even their private film study sessions had to go on hold for about a month and a half. And, almost more importantly, so did Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky. Months later, Ovechkin admitted he holds no ill will toward McBain.
“Of course, I’m sure [it was unintentional],” Ovechkin said.
“It is clear that when you get any injury at all, the feelings are not pleasant,” Ovechkin continued. “And first you had to understand the recovery period, and then do everything that was required in such a situation. All this time, I worked on myself, made some conclusions. It’s good that the recovery went well.”
After being given a four-to-six-week recovery timeline, Ovechkin was back skating just two weeks after the game against Utah. He eventually returned on December 28 and scored his 869th career goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs to restart his path to the record.
“Of course, [the goal] helped,” Ovechkin said. “As did the help of the guys, who immediately started supporting me in everything. Of course, it was hard physically, because training is one thing, and a game, when you go out on the ice, and there are completely different speeds, is another. Five matches were probably hard, because I had to get into the rhythm again, remember everything I had done before.”
Since returning, Ovechkin has 28 points (18g, 10a) in 31 games. He is still well on schedule to top Gretzky this season. His current pace would see him tie the record on April 10 vs. Carolina and break it on April 12 at Columbus.
