{"id":206604,"date":"2025-10-07T09:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/206604\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:26:09","slug":"spencer-carbery-calls-alex-ovechkins-preseason-performance-hard-to-evaluate-i-have-the-utmost-confidence-that-hell-be-ready-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/206604\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Carbery calls Alex Ovechkin\u2019s preseason performance hard to evaluate: \u2018I have the utmost confidence that he\u2019ll be ready to go\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ovechkin\u2019s preseason didn\u2019t go as anticipated, making his readiness for the start of the 2025-26 regular season unclear. The 40-year-old Ovechkin suffered a lower-body injury on the first day of training camp<\/a>, missing the team\u2019s first four preseason games.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\u2019s first exhibition game came on October 2 against the Boston Bruins<\/a>, skating on a line with Ivan Miroshnichenko and Ilya Protas. He then suited up for the team\u2019s preseason finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday<\/a>, taking the ice with his most familiar linemates last season, Aliaksei Protas and Dylan Strome.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin did not register a point in his two appearances, spending most of his time as a playmaker trying to set up his teammates. Individually, Ovechkin had five shots on goal, registered 10 shot attempts, and threw four hits. When he was on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals were out-attempted 23 to 20 and outscored 1-0, with the team\u2019s expected goals percentage at 42.39 percent.<\/p>\n

When asked if Ovechkin was up to speed ahead of the Capitals\u2019 season opener against the Bruins on Wednesday, Caps head coach Spencer Carbery seemed positive he would, but also downplayed his expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a TBD because it\u2019s really hard to evaluate, O, in preseason games,\u201d Carbery said after Monday\u2019s final training camp practice. \u201cHe\u2019s just trying to get through those games and get some game touches, to be honest with you. Try not to get hurt and just play at a competitive level and get some shifts and reps in. So, it\u2019s hard to evaluate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout Ovechkin\u2019s career, Opening Night has typically been an electrifying evening, seeing him put up huge points in victories. But since turning 37, Ovechkin has come out of the gates slow, posting no goals and only 1 assist in three games.<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin\u2019s points in the Capitals\u2019 last 3 season openers<\/p>\n

1 assist \u2013 10\/12\/24 vs NJD
\n0 points \u2013 10\/13\/23 vs PIT
\n0 points \u2013 10\/12\/22 vs BOS<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it looks to begin the year, but I have the utmost confidence that he\u2019ll be ready to go,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cHopefully, his conditioning and his foot speed and all the different stuff, his puck touches, are as close to mid-season form, or he has had enough time to get him in a good spot for Opening Night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin heads into his 21st career NHL season just three goals shy of becoming the first player in league history to hit the 900 mark. He is also just nine games away from playing 1,500 in his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin\u2019s preseason didn\u2019t go as anticipated, making his readiness for the start of the 2025-26 regular season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-206604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}