ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Alex Ovechkin skated alone before Washington Capitals practice as he works to bounce back from a broken leg.
Ovechkin wore a tracksuit and helmet with stick in hand, but no hockey equipment during his light training. coach Spencer Carbery said it was the first time the 39-year-old longtime captain was back on the ice since the injury.
“It was nice to see putting the skates on and coming out on a sheet of ice,” Carbery said. “Just the first step. No timeline updates or anything like that. It’s just a step toward his return.”
Ovechkin broke his left fibula in a shin-to-shin collision with Utah's Jack McBain on Nov. 18. After initially being listed as week-to-week with a lower leg injury, Ovechkin was ruled out for four to six weeks following further evaluation. The team said surgery was not required.
That schedule would have Ovechkin playing again sometime in late December or early January.
Ovechkin scored 15 goals in his first 18 games before getting injured and was 27 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL career record. His next game against another goalkeeper will be his 179th, also setting a league mark and breaking the tie with Jaromir Jagr.
The Capitals have won four straight since losing their first two games without Ovechkin. They are first in the Eastern Conference about a quarter of the way through the season and have gone 8 for 20 on the power play in six games without Ovechkin, with Ovechkin already the all-time power play leader with 316.
“We had to put something together pretty quickly because we had had a staple there in one spot for years,” Carbery said. “These five people got together: 'Okay, what do we want to do?' It was really impressive to see how they got back to the same level so quickly as they were after Alex lost.”
Carbery said winger Sonny Milano, who also skated before practice, still has a “long road” to return to the lineup after his upper-body injury.
