WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin missed a game because of injury for just the 25th time in his 17-year NHL career.
All of those have come in the regular season. He has never missed one in the playoffs.
Ovechkin was ruled out of the Washington Capitals’ game Tuesday night against the New York Islanders, and his status moving forward is unclear with the start of the first round less than a week away.
The 36-year-old star did not skate with teammates earlier in the day and is listed as day-to-0day with an upper-body injury. Despite calling him a game-time decision, Coach Peter Laviolette voiced some uncertainty when asked if he was at least optimistic about Ovechkin being ready for the start of the first round.
“I want to say I hope so, but I don’t know,” Laviolette said. “It depends on how things progress with him, so it’s day-to-day right now.”
Ovechkin tripped over Toronto goaltender Erik Kallgren’s stick and slammed into the boards left shoulder first early in the third period Sunday night in a shootout loss to the Maple Leafs. He lay on the ice in pain, skated off and did not return.
The Russian winger has only missed 44 games for any reason since making debut in 2005.
Ovechkin earlier this season passed Jaromir Jagr for third on the career goals list and now trails only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howie. He has 50 this season – the ninth time he has done that, tying Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the NHL record.
Durability has helped Ovechkin play 1,274 regular-season and 141 playoff games.
RED WINGS: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 10 counterfeit Stanley Cup rings for the 1936 Detroit Red Wings championship team due to trademark violations, the agency announced.
Customs officers at the Port of Champlain facility in New York found the rings valued at $15,000 earlier this month after examining a shipment. CBP said the shipment violated the intellectual property rights of the Red Wings’ trademark.
TUESDAY’S GAMES
MAPLE LEAFS 3, WINGS 0: Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 59th and 60th goals of the season as host Toronto clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The 24-year-old, who snapped a five-game goal drought, is the first player to score 60 times in a campaign since Steven Stamkos in 2011-12.
ISLANDERS 4, CAPITALS 1: The host Capitals blew a lead and gave up four unanswered goals to an opponent that has long been out of playoff contention.
They allowed power-play goals to Ryan Pulock and Noah Dobson, goaltender Ilya Samsonov botched a puck-handling attempt behind the net to help Casey Cizikas score short-handed and Tom Wilson turned the puck over to Anders Lee for New York’s fourth goal of the game.
LIGHTNING 4, BLUE JACKETS 1: Steven Stamkos reached the 100-point mark for the first time in his NHL career by scoring two goals and assisting on two more, and host Tampa Bay won its fourth straight.
Stamkos had an assist and a power-play goal in the first period, then got point No. 100 when he took a pass from Nikita Kucherov and beat Elvis Merzlikins from the right circle at 7:29 of the second to put Tampa Bay ahead 3-1.
HURRICANES 4, RANGERS 3: Vincent Trochek had a goal and an assist, rookie Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 31 shots and visiting Carolina clinched the Metropolitan Division title.
Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Jordan Martinook also scored for Carolina, and Brady Skjei had two assists. The Hurricanes, who won their second straight division title after winning the realigned Central Division in last year’s shortened season, set franchise records with 53 wins and 114 points, topping marks set in 2005-06.
OILERS 5, PENGUINS 1: Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to outduel Sidney Crosby, and surging Edmonton won at Pittsburgh.
McDavid pushed his point total to an NHL-best 122 by finishing off his 22nd career four-point game with a pretty shot from a tight angle 9:13 into the third period. His 44th goal gave the Oilers a three-goal lead.
SENATORS 5, DEVILS 4: Drake Batherson scored in overtime to give Ottawa a win over visiting New Jersey.
Batherson also scored in regulation, Tim Stutzle had a pair of goals and Thomas Chabot also scored for Ottawa in this matchup of teams near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Brady Tkachuk chipped in three assists, and Anton Forsberg made 37 saves.
Nolan Foote had a pair of goals for the Devils, whose skid extended to four games. Pavel Zacha and Yegor Sharangovich also scored.
FLAMES 5, PREDATORS 4: Matthew Tkachuk forced overtime by scoring with a second left in the third and Elias Lindholm’s OT goal secured visiting Calgary’s win.
Dillon Dube scored twice and Noah Hanifin also had a goal for Calgary, winners of three straight. Dan Vladar made 19 saves.
Filip Forsberg scored two power-play goals, Matt Duchene had a goal and two assists and Roman Josi had one goal and one assist for the Predators, losers of three straight.
COYOTES 5, WILD 3: Travis Boyd scored the go-ahead goal, which stood after a long review, and last-place Arizona beat host Minnesota to slow its pursuit of home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Wild, who are in a battle for home ice with the St. Louis Blues, their first-round opponent. The two entered Tuesday tied with 109 points, though the Wild have a game in hand.
Anton Stralman, Antoine Roussel, Jack McBain and Phil Kessel also scored for the Coyotes, who ended a 10-game skid.
Karel Vejmelka stopped 34 shots for the Coyotes. Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves in the loss.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.