WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin left practice early Tuesday, but the reigning NHL MVP is expected to play in the Washington Capitals’ season opener Friday at Atlanta.
Ovechkin skated off the ice after fewer than 15 minutes.
“He’ll be OK. He’ll be playing Friday,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “You know, it’s nothing serious at all, but, I mean, it would be prudent for me not to say why he went off.”
Another Capitals forward, Alexander Semin, also missed practice time — and also is in the team’s plans for Game 1.
“He should be fine,” Boudreau said. “Not feeling well.”
The team later said both players were dealing with nagging injuries.
• Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin is expected to start the regular season with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Khabibulin, 35, had seemed destined to be sent to the minors, traded or opt to play in his native Russia by the time the Blackhawks open their regular season Friday in New York against the Rangers.
But Khabibulin, who is entering the final year of a four-year contract that is set to pay him $6.75 million this season, was on the Blackhawks’ final roster heading into the regular season.
NHL teams must submit rosters to the league by 1 p.m. MDT today.
• The San Jose Sharks put defenseman Kyle McLaren on waivers, possibly ending the oft-injured veteran’s 4 1/2-year tenure with the club.
• The Los Angeles Kings re- signed center Patrick O’Sullivan to a three-year contract.
Cycling’s Olympic future in limbo
LONDON — The future of men’s road cycling in the Olympics could be threatened unless the sport cleans up its doping record.
Thomas Bach, vice president of the International Olympic Committee, said the latest Tour de France doping revelations have further damaged the sport’s credibility and called its Olympic status into question.
Anti-doping and cycling officials said Monday that Leonardo Piepoli of Italy and Stefan Schumacher of Germany had tested positive during this year’s Tour de France for CERA, an advanced version of the blood booster EPO. Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco previously admitted to CERA use.
“This is a hard blow for the credibility of men’s road cycling,” Bach said. “Obviously, the riders have not changed their mentality. They had a chance to do so, but they did not and this makes it even worse.”
The head of the Tour de France on Tuesday hailed a new lab test that has exposed the three riders.
“It’s very good. It allows us to confound the cheaters,” Christian Prudhomme said. “What’s being done at the Tour de France has never existed in the world of sport.”
In another development, Luxembourg’s anti-doping agency expanded an investigation against cyclist Frank Schleck, who wore the yellow jersey for three days during the Tour and was suspended by his team last week.
Footnotes.
Dom Rosselli, the winningest basketball and baseball coach at Youngstown State with a combined 1,000 career victories, died. He was 93.
• ESPN and the new MLB Network will split television rights to the World Baseball Classic that opens March 5.
The Associated Press
