Ovechkin re-joins Capitals practice just 17 days after breaking his leg

Just 17 days after fracturing his leg, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is back on the ice.

Ovechkin was injured just over two weeks ago and was expected to be out of the team's lineup for 4-6 weeks. With him joining the team for practice you have to assume that things are progressing much quicker than expected and that he'll be back in the lineup sooner than anticipated.

Read below for our earlier reports on Ovechkin's injury, published as events occurred over two weeks ago.

This just in, the Washington Capitals have confirmed that captain Alex Ovechkin has fractured his left fibula and will be out of the lineup for 4-6 weeks.

Ovechkin has missed just 35 games total over the course of his two decade long pro career, making this the longest span of time that he'll miss games due to injury.

Read below for our earlier report on Ovechkin's injury, published as events occurred.

UPDATE: The Washington Capitals have announced that captain Alex Ovechkin is out week to week after suffering a leg injury last night.

Just awful news for hockey fans everywhere.

For the record, Ovechkin has missed just 35 games due to injury over the course of his nearly two decade long NHL career. This stands to potentially the worst injury of his career to date.

Read below for our earlier report on Ovechkin's injury.

In case you missed it last night, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored two goals in his team's 6-2 victory over Utah HC, making him the NHL's leading goal scorer at 39 years old. He's also just 28 goals behind Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal scoring record.

That's the good news...

The bad news is that Ovechkin left the game in the 3rd period with what appeared to be a serious leg injury. Ovechkin collided knee-on-knee with Utah forward Jack McBain and went down in a heap on the ice. Ovechkin looked to be in considerable pain and had to be helped off the ice.

Here's the play in question:

Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters after the game that Ovechkin will undergo testing today to evaluate the severity of the injury. It's expected that Ovechkin will undergo an MRI exam later today.

From Caps insider Tarik El-Bashir:

Stay tuned for an update from the team as it becomes available.