Capitals star winger Alex Ovechkin will be sidelined “week-week” after a knee-on-knee collision with the Utah hockey club’s forward Jack McBain, the team announced Tuesday. Wednesday the capital’s leading goal scorer landed on IR.

With the Russian native just 42 goals shy of Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record there was a lot of question when and if he would reach it. Last season Alex Ovechkin had career lows in goals per game, and points per game with 31 goals and 34 assists for 65 points. Ovechkin followed up this doubt with a great start to the season with 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points in his first 18 games this season putting him 27 goals short of breaking the goals record. This is a 68-goal/114-point pace.

While this is a small sample size to go off of on the off-chance Ovechkin had continued this impressive pace he would not only reach a career high in goals and points at age 39 but also accomplish the goals record easily. Being injured week-week definitely makes it harder for him to accomplish the record this season. So far this season with Ovechkin in the lineup the Capitals are 13-4-1 which is good enough for first in the metropolitan division.