From Washington Post Capitals' reporter Tarik El-Bashir's twitter:

When Alexander Ovechkin returns to NHL action tonight against the New York Rangers, he is likely to play a different role on the Capitals' power play, reports Corey Masisak.

Before missing six games with an "upper body strain," Ovechkin played the power play point with Mike Green. With Ovechkin out, Brendan Morrison has filled his spot, and the Capitals' power play has been operating at a torrid 46.2% success rate. Masisak also notes that with Morrison playing the point position, the Capitals have surrendered fewer shorthanded opportunities.

With Ovechkin returning, the Capitals face an interesting power play lineup conundrum.  They do not want to keep Ovechkin, who scored 19 power play goals last season, off the unit, but at the same time, they don't want to risk cooling off the power play unit and reverting back to giving up numerous shorthanded chances.  It would seem that Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau is trying to find a happy medium, skating Ovechkin up front on the power play with Morrison and Green continuing to play the point. 

I was just trying to do some different things because you knew what the story was going to be - The power play is doing so well, where do you put Alex? So we're practicing different stuff, and then we'll figure out what the best situation is for him.

Ovechkin seems to like the change as well.

Mike and [Morrison] right now play well. They control the puck. It gives us more space, especially Mike and [Morrison] upstairs, but if I have a chance to shoot over there, I might have a better opportunity to score goals.

Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau is optimistic that Ovechkin will return Tuesday:

Ovechkin, of course, played it coy with reporters, saying: “We’ll see tomorrow.”

But Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau was more straightforward when asked if Ovechkin was playing: “As of today, he is.”

Caps fans are sighing in relief now after watching Alexander Semin try and fail to take over Ovechkin’s big play impact. Gary Bettman sighed in relief now that one of the few superstars in the NHL that the general public knows about is playing again.

According to Corey Masisak, Ovechkin is back on the ice:

Alex Ovechkin is on the ice and wearing his normal red jersey this morning.

Ovechkin is closer to returning to game action and could play tomorrow night against the New York Rangers. The Capitals are 4-2-0 since he was injured on November 1.

Talking with reporters after practice, Alexander Ovechkin has upgraded himself to day-to-day, reports Corey Masisak via Twitter.  

"I feel better today, and right now I feel better every day. Probably day-to-day."

 "I just need a couple more days, maybe one week."

Of course, given Ovechkin's previous joking with reporters about the amount of time he will miss, we cannot be entirely sure that he will return until he steps out onto the ice for a game.  Ovechkin did note, however, that were this the playoffs, he would be playing.

"Well, I just try to joke with you guys. Couple days ago I say a month. Today I say day-to-day."

If you weren't' already aware, Alexander Ovechkin marches to the beat of his own drum.

And just like that, we’ve gone from Ovechkin being out 4-5 weeks to the Caps possibly getting him back this weekend. Here’s what the team’s GM George McPhee said following Monday’s practice:

“We’ll see if he can play this weekend. He’s that close, but we’ll be smart about it.”

As we noted earlier in this stream, Ovie is already out for Wednesday. The Caps’ next two games after that are Friday against the Wild and Saturday against the Devils.

Once again, Washington Times' Corey Masisak:

Whether or not Ovechkin misses 4-5 weeks as he claims remains to be seen, but we know for certain that the Caps’ superstar will not play this Wednesday against the Islanders. Head coach Bruce Boudreau made the announcement Monday, according to Washington Times’ Corey Masisak.

Ovie was back out on the ice, however. After the rest of the team was finished practicing, he got his own, clean sheet of ice to skate around on. Such are the perks of being the greatest hockey player in the world.

Alex Ovechkin says he's out "4-5 weeks." The Washington Capitals say he's just "week-to-week." So who's right? Comcast's Russ Thaler has a theory. Check that. He has a conspiracy theory.

In actuality, the “report” the team is disputing isn’t a report at all!  It’s an interview Ovechkin gave Dmitry Chesnokov after Saturday night’s win over the Florida Panthers.  It was an interview witnessed by others.  It was conducted in Russian, the native tongue of both men, and it was recorded so that it could be transcribed and printed on yahoo.com. Have a look at the interview with Alexander Ovechkin.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know Dmitry Chesnokov personally, and he has facilitated interviews for me with Semyon Varlamov and Alexander Semin.  Dmitry was the translator for both interviews since I know about four words in Russian.  Never once have either of the players disputed any of the translation on those interviews, not one word ...

So why would Ovi say he's our for at least a month, while the team downplays it?

If the team is listing Alex as “week to week”, then maybe in his mind “four to five weeks” seems about when he’ll be back to feeling like he did before the injury.  Why risk further injury so early in the season, when the team is doing well enough, before the intensity and immediacy picks up, when the Olympics could be jeopardized by a premature return?

Not much of a conspiracy theory: he's skated and practiced with the team, testing the injury, and he knows better than anyone what kind of pain he's in; there's no reason for Ovechkin to rush his return, especially when the Caps have a comfortable division lead; he wants to play in the Olympics, an event that (obviously) doesn't come along too often. Really, it all makes a lot of sense.

Alexander Ovechkin gave an interview to Dmitri Chesnokov from SovSport and Puck Daddy. Here is what he had to say about his upper body injury:

Q. You’re in good mood. Are you getting better?
OVECHKIN: I am better. But I will miss 4-5 weeks.

Are you serious?
I actually plan on starting practice on the ice next week.

I guess what Ovechkin says would be the truth right? Well, Japers’ Rink, our Washington Capitals blog, has a direct quote from the team saying this:

“The Washington Capitals dispute the validity of this report.”

This situation is going to get crazier before it gets better.

Because he said so himself, according to Corey Masisak of The Washington Times.

The Capitals play at Florida Friday night, and then host the Panthers Saturday. Washington then has three days off before welcoming the Islanders to D.C. Wednesday night.

Japers’ Rink says that this is an opportunity for the rest of the Capitals to take the next step and play together in Ovechkin’s absence. It’s something the Penguins did when Sidney Crosby was out in 2008, and now it’s the Capitals’ turn:

It’s time for Alexander Semin to shoot first . . . and reclaim his own superstar status.

It’s time for Tomas Fleischmann (perhaps on a top line?) to possibly crack the 20-goal per season pace, and beyond.

It’s time for Chris Clark to find some semblance of an offensive game again, working consistently with more offensively-gifted linemates.

It’s time for the coaching staff, and the members of the power play squads, to re-invent new strategies of attack.

It’s time for the organization to again test it’s heralded offensive depth, including those waiting for just this moment in Chocolate Town.

It’s time for the defense, currently sitting at 21st in the league in GA/G, to get a little tighter, a little meaner, its passes crisper, its checking more, well, finished. Those top scoring lines won’t as easily get that goal back. Ditto for Messrs. Theodore and Varlamov.

It’s time for a sixty-minute effort, and not a “fifty-one minute” one.

Mike Vogel, the Washington Capitals in-house reporter, has published a short piece on what Ovechkin's loss will mean for the Capitals and who will have to step up to fill the scoring void.

How do you replace Alex Ovechkin? You don't.  It would take a village (so to speak) to even vaguely approximate what he brings to the ice on a nightly basis.

In addition to being the Capitals' emotional leader on the ice, Ovechkin leads all NHL forwards in ice-time-per-game and leads the league in scoring with 14 goals and 9 assists; with 23 points, Ovechkin has had a hand in nearly half of the Capitals 47 goals this season.  

Vogel acknowledges that 23 minutes of ice time can easily be allocated among the rest of the Capitals' forwards and predicts that forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and Brooks Laich will all see their minutes go up slightly to compensate for Ovechkin's absence. Vogel also predicts a significant increase in minutes for either Eric Fehr or Tomas Fleischmann, as one of the two forwards should move into the top six.  Fehr was recently cleared to play after missing a few games with bruised ribs, and Fleischmann has looked great in his first two games with the Capitals after missing almost all of October recovering from deep vein thrombosis. Finally, Vogel suggests that the team might recall LW Alexandre Giroux from Hershey to round out the forward corps.

Replacing Ovechkin's scoring production will be significantly more difficult than spreading his minutes around.  Said Capitals' Coach Bruce Boudreau of what the team will have to do in Ovechkin's absence:

We have to buckle down. A goal a game, he scores. We've got to play better defense. We can't allow four goals and five goals a game. You have to win 3-1 and 2-1 and if you get lucky sometimes, make it a 4-2 game.

Unfortunately for the Capitals, playing without Ovechkin has not led to much success.  In the four games that Ovechkin has missed in his career, the Capitals are 1-3 and have been outscored by a combined total of 15-7 in those games.

Every player in the league wants more ice time. Starting on Wednesday when Washington visits New Jersey, some of the boys in the red, white and blue sweaters are going to start getting more ice. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.

And for how long they'll have to do it.

This tweet comes from Washington Times’ Corey Masisak:

Bruce Boudreau says their is no update on Ovechkin, but if he were guessing, he thinks Alex won’t play until at least the weekend.

So, yeah: Still nothing official on Ovechkin’s injury — or even what part of his upper body is injured — but it’s hard to imagine their coach would speculate on how long Ovie will be out without some knowledge of the situation.

This according to the Capitals’ official Twitter feed:

Alex Ovechkin suffered an upper-body injury in the 2d per and is day-to-day. Day off tomorrow so the soonest we will have an update is Tue.

Meanwhile, we have plenty of time to speculate. Greg Wyshynski over at Puck Daddy does just that and relays the news that he hears it is a left shoulder injury from those in the know.

Ovechkin spoke to the media after tonight’s loss but was less-then-forthcoming in details about the extent of his injury.

Ovechkin: "I can’t tell you how I got hurt. It’s day-to-day. "

Reporter: “So you don’t think it’s very serious.”

Ovechkin: “I don’t know.”

Reporter: “What is it?”

Ovechkin: “(Laughing) You think I want to tell you?”

Reporter: “Can you tell us kind of where it is?”

Ovechkin: “No I can’t.”

Reporter: “Left? Right? Upper? Lower?”

Ovechkin: “Upper body.”

Speculation seems to be that its an aggravated shoulder of some kind but nothing too serious. Ovechkin is day-to-day until further information is released by the team.

Watch the video of Ovechkin’s interview here and head over to Japers Rink for more post-game analysis.

R.J. Umberger scored his second power-play goal of the game 1:45 into overtime, lifting the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-4 win over the Washington Capitals. Perhaps, had he been on the ice, it could have been Alex Ovechkin making the game-winning play for Washington, but Ovechkin left the game earlier with an apparent arm injury:

Ovechkin left early in the second period, and there was no official word on his injury. He fell after colliding with Torres, and was holding his left arm as he departed.

More on this as it comes in.