Washington coach says pause is beneficial for Ovechkin at Four Nations Tournament

Head coach of the Washington Capitals hockey club (HC) Spencer Carbery said that the break in the National Hockey League (NHL) regular season for the Four Nations Tournament will help team captain Alexander Ovechkin recover. This was reported by Sport-Express on February 8.

"The pause will help him both mentally and physically. Physically - he's still recovering from his injury. The pause will give his body a really good reset, allow him to rest and be ready for the last 27 games of the regular season," NHL Network reporter Tariq El-Bashir quoted Carbery as saying on social network X (formerly Twitter).

The Four Nations Tournament will be played Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston. Washington will play its first game after the NHL break on Feb. 22 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In the current season, the 39-year-old Russian played 38 games and scored 40 (26+14) points. In mid-November, the forward suffered a fracture of the fibula of the left leg and did not participate in games for a month and a half, notes "Gazeta.Ru".

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Ovechkin flies for the record, Michkov rushes for the prize

Earlier, on February 6, Ovechkin scored the 879th puck in the National Hockey League (NHL), reducing to 15 behind the record of Canadian athlete Wayne Gretzky, which is 894 pucks.

Before that, on February 2, Ovechkin scored a puck "Winnipeg Jets" in a home match of the regular NHL championship, reducing the gap from Gretzky to 17 goals. The match was held in Washington and ended with a 5-4 overtime victory for the visitors.