Over his 20 NHL seasons, Ovechkin has missed just 59 games, 35 of which were due to injury. He missed five games or fewer in 16 of his previous 19 seasons, and the 11 games he sat out during the COVID-shortened 56-game 2020-21 season (seven due to a lower-body injury, four while in COVID protocol) are the most he is missed in every season.

“We sat there and said, ‘This is weird. It’s unbelievable that he’s actually hurt,'” Capitals right wing Tom Wilson said Wednesday. “It’s one of those things where you say, ‘He’s going to miss games?’ It’s new to me. He doesn’t go out and run every shift for 20 years, running over guys and skating power forward who plays the game really hard. It was great.

“I’m sure he’ll come back stronger than ever and fly around fast.”

Ovechkin’s injury interrupts his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals. With 15 goals leading the NHL in his first 18 games this season, Ovechkin increased his career total to 868 and finished with 27 goals to surpass Gretzky.

Ovechkin was the oldest player in NHL history to score 15 goals in a season.

“He didn’t just stumble to this record, he dominated and he went for a Rocket (Richard Trophy for most goals in a season),” Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. “So it (stinks) that he’s out for a few weeks, but hopefully he can come back sooner than they say and keep chasing him.”