Brian MacLellan announced today that captain Alex Ovechkin will be away from the team to attend to a family matter and the health of a loved one.
At this point, it's all the information we were given, we can only hope for the best for one if not the best goalscorer of all time. He now has 812 NHL goals, already up to 32 this season. If he scores 10 more this year, he'll need two 36 goals-seasons to beat Gretzky's long-standing record of 894 Regular season goals.