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This NHL season started with it looking like Alex Ovechkin could maybe, possibly catch Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record, but a lot of folks (*raises hand*) thought it would happen, but not until the 2025-26 season.

However, the Great 8 has hit the ground running and is among the league leaders in goals and even took the overall lead with a stellar two-goal performance on Monday night against the Utah Hockey Team.

Unfortunately, as the game went on, the story shifted from being about how Ovechkin could catch the Great One by the spring, to whether it could happen this year after Ovechkin went down with an apparent knee injury in the third period.

Ovie has five goals in the last two games to pull within 26 goals of Gretzky’s all-time scoring record.

Considering the rate at which he has been scoring this season—15 goals in 18 games—that’s very doable.

 But in the third period Monday, Ovechkin preparing to turn and hustle up ice after a Utah turnover in the Washington zone, when he collided with Utah’s Jack McBain and went down in a heap.

It looked completely unintentional and like one of those “two ships passing in the night” kind of collisions, but it was clear that Ovechkin — who rarely goes down and stays down like this — was in some serious discomfort.

Well, that’s not good.

“He’s being evaluated as we speak and we’ll know more (Tuesday),” Washington coach Spencer Carbery told the media after the game.

Considering the hard-nosed way that he plays, one of the hallmarks of Ovechkin’s game is his durability. It’s unreal how physically he has played for almost 20 years with few injury issues.

However, when you take a shot to the knee like that, you can be the most durable guy in NHL history — shoutout Phil Kessel — you’re going to be in some pain.

Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious and Ovechkin is back in action soon.