Ovechkin: 'Probably a week'

Alex Ovechkin returned to the ice today, skating at the end of the Caps' practice and again for about 15 minutes with Mark Nemish. He took some wrist shots, did a little stickhandling and carried his stick in his left hand the entire time he was out there.

"I feel much better right now," Ovechkin said. "I hope soon."





From the sounds of it, Ovechkin and team officials expect the two-time MVP to miss Wednesday's game. But after that, no one is willing to guess.

"I wish it was going to be tomorrow," Ovechkin said. "I need to make sure I'm good and my body feels good. Probably a week. We'll see."

As for a report that came out yesterday quoting Ovechkin saying he will miss "4-5 weeks," Ovechkin said: "I was just joking."

Ovechkin added that he has improved markedly from Thursday -- the last time he skated -- to today.

"This is progress, I think; I'm kind of happy about it," he said.

Ovechkin also said that he didn't feel any pain while taking shots, though he admitted that he wasn't putting too much on them.

"It was no pain," he said. "It was easy shots, not hard. I don't want to rush my body to take some real hard slap shot or wrist shot. I'm just getting used to it."

Asked whether he's concerned about getting hit, he said, "I can [have] contact, it's all about moves."

That -- and the fact that he motioned to his left pectoral/shoulder area twice during the interview -- suggests that he's got a muscle strain and not does not have any structural damage in his shoulder.

