An update on Ovechkin after incident with Leafs G Erik Kallgren
It seems that the apparent injury to Alexander Ovechkin is worse than first thought. The active career goal scoring leader was injured after tripping over Erik Kallgren's stick during the Leafs 4-3 shootout victory over the Caps Sunday night. According to Captials coach Peter Laviolette, Ovechkin is day-to-day with an uppder body injury.
Kallgren recieved a surprising amount of backlash over the incident. It was clear to any objective eye that the young Swede was simply trying to make a save against one of the most dangerous scorers in league history. It seems that opposing fans thought that a 25 year old rookie with less than 10 NHL starts purposely tried, and succeded in injuring Ovechkin. The good news is, Caps fans will be excellent at the 2024 Olympics in the long jump category after leaping all the way to that conclusion.
Part of what has made Ovechkin so great is his durability. It's concerning that a play that looked fairly innocuous had held him out of multiple games. Is this age starting to catch up with the Great 8? Or are the Caps simply holding him out of the lineup as a precaution with the playoffs starting next week?
The Caps have 2 games left on their schedule, and have a chance to move ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the standings. Those extra points could mean the difference between facing the Florida Panthers or the New York Rangers in round one of the playoffs, I would imagine if Ovechkin was fit to play, he would be in the lineup.
