"Wayne sent a hitman" - Fans react as Alex Ovechkin gets injured following collision with Jack McBain

On Monday night, Jack McBain of the Utah Hockey Club became the talking point in the NHL for unwanted reasons. During the game against the Washington Capitals, he collided with Alex Ovechkin in the third period which left the veteran forward injured.

This season, Ovechkin seems to have turned back the clock. Following a hat trick on Sunday night against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Capitals captain was looking for back-to-back hat tricks with two goals in this game.

Unfortunately, Ovechkin was unable to claim his 32nd career hat trick in this game as he suffered an injury. The incident took place in the third period when the Caps were 4-2 up.

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McBain would cut across the Capitals' zone and had leg-on-leg contact with Ovechkin. The Russian star fell on the ice and was slow to get back to his feet. He would later exit the game and was seen limping across the bench, leaving the fans worried.

This injury to him comes at a time when he continues to chase the goal-scoring record of Wayne Gretzky. The two goals in this game saw 'The Great Eight' take his career tally to 868 and leave him 26 goals away from tying the record of Gretzky.

McBain later found himself in a tussle with Tom Wilson. The Capitals star seemingly unimpressed with his actions in Ovechkin's injury, dropped the gloves and fought him.

In a quick bout, Wilson would get the better of him by landing several punches. The two of them were later penalized for their actions and sent to the penalty box.

Social media reactions towards Alex Ovechkin's injury

Even though the Washington Capitals emerged as 6-2 winners on Monday night, the injury to Alex Ovechkin has left the fans on social media upset. Despite this being an accidental collision, Jack McBain seems to have now become the number one public enemy in NHL at the moment.

Alex Ovechkin (Image via Imago)

Several fans on X would slam him for his actions. Some fans made some light fun of the incident and claimed that Wayne Gretzky set him up with one user writing, 'Wayne sent a hitman'. Others wished for the well-being of Ovechkin following this injury.

Check out some of the top reactions regarding this incident from X below:

As per head coach Spencer Carbery, Ovechkin was assessed after the game. More updates on his status are expected to come out tomorrow.

This injury could become a major blow not just for Ovechkin's chase for Gretzky's record but also for the Caps in particular. At the moment, he is the league's top goal scorer with 15 goals. On top of that, he has also picked up 10 assists in the 18 games this season while leading the Capitals offense.

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Vinay Dave is a Content Writer of US Sports at FirstSportz. He currently crafts topics going on the diamonds of Major League Baseball (MLB), the icy arenas of National Hockey League (NHL) and the greens of Golf. A journalism graduate from Mumbai, Vinay currently has over 3 years of experience writing and has over 1,000+ articles under his belt. In his free time he can spotted passionately supporting Manchester City, watching some action-packed anime or singing along to the melodies of Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Freddie Mercury.