The Washington Capitals rough offseason may have just gotten a lot worse.
During the third period of Team Russia’s 3-0 win against Team Germany, Alex Ovechkin was upended on a hip check and put down on the ice. Ovechkin needed help from trainers getting off the ice and went straight to the locker room putting no weight on his right leg.
Slava Malamud of Sport-Express says things don’t look good at all at the moment as he was taken from the arena in an ambulance.
Alex Ovechkin has been taken off in an ambulance. Evaluation still pending, but according to inside info, "it's pretty bad". #Caps
— Slava Malamud 🇺🇦 (@SlavaMalamud) May 18, 2014
The peril of having star players participate in the World Championships means they can still get injured playing hockey, just ask Eric Staal last year when he was injured in a knee-on-knee hit by Alex Edler.
If Ovechkin is injured seriously, it’s a major blow to the Capitals as they’re in need of a new GM and coach as it is. Having to possibly deal without Ovechkin makes for a brutal turn of events.
Update (4:58 p.m. ET): According to Malamud, Ovechkin was taken to the hospital for a MRI to examine his lower-body. To cool down the possible hysteria, he clarified the person who said it was “pretty bad” was a team official and not a doctor.
The Capitals have also released a statement on the injury:
“We are aware that Alex Ovechkin sustained an injury during today’s game versus Germany. Our medical staff is working with Ovechkin and Team Russia to gather additional information at this time.”
Update (5:58 p.m. ET): We might be able to take this down to DEFCON 4 in Washington -- Ovechkin is back at his hotel and walking around.
Ovi back at hotel, almost not limping, better than it looked initially RT @plysenkovRUS Почти не хромает... pic.twitter.com/g6hxlYQbyN
— Igor Kleyner (@IgorKleyner) May 18, 2014
To add to that, here’s more good news:
Once again, the team doctor offered cryptic but optimistic news, saying "it's better than we thought." Ovechkin will not play vs Belarus.
— Slava Malamud 🇺🇦 (@SlavaMalamud) May 18, 2014
Finally, to put this to bed, here’s Ovechkin giving thumbs-up on Instagram.