This is quickly turning into the season of the falling stars in the NHL.

The opening month of the season just ended and the league has already seen Marc Savard, Milan Lucic, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, and Jonathan Toews go down with various injuries.

That star-studded list is only a few of the names -- for a complete list of injuries around the league check out http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/injuries

Be sure to note the growing list in Detroit too. I don't wish ill on teams, but I'm not complaining about seeing them get off to a slow start and having some of their stars not able to play.

As of last night, you can add another name to the injury list. That man might very well be public enemy number one in Pittsburgh.

Alex Ovechkin.

Ovechkin got wrapped up with Raffi Torres and fell to the ice in the second period of last night's 5-4 loss. Ovechkin got up and gingerly skated off the ice and did not return.

He is listed as day-to-day with an "upper-body injury."

Other stories about the injury:

• TSN.ca's Recap
• Tribune Review Story
• NHL.com Story

Ovechkin is the heart and soul of that Washington team. They will go as far as he takes them. The supporting cast of Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom among others is very solid.

However, can they continue to be successful if Ovie has to miss some time? That I'm not so sure about, especially with a young goaltender in Semyon Varlamov.

I'm sure some people out there are probably giddy over the injury and will say that he deserved it. I don't think that someone ever deserves an injury, but I have questioned some of his hits in the past.  He has a slight tendency to leave his feet when he hits people and we all remember the knee on knee hit he dropped on Gonchar in the playoffs.

Could he have gotten out of the way? I think so. Was it intentional? I'd have a hard time thinking that he would intentionally try to hurt anyone. Not to mention a fellow countryman. Time will tell the severity and nature of the injury, but if it turns out to be something serious the Caps will officially be in panic mode.

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