Alex Ovechkin skates before Capitals practice as he works to return from a broken leg

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Alex Ovechkin skated by himself before Washington Capitals practice on Monday as he works to return from a broken leg.

Ovechkin wore a tracksuit and a helmet with stick in hand but no hockey gear during his light workout, which coach Spencer Carbery said he believed was the 39-year-old longtime captain's first time back on the ice since the injury.

“To get the skates on and get out on an ice sheet, it was nice to see,” Carbery said. “Just the first step. No timeline updates or anything like that. It’s just a step in the progression of him coming back.”

Ovechkin broke his left fibula in a shin-on-shin collision with Utah’s Jack McBain on Nov. 18. After initially being listed as week to week with a lower left leg injury, Ovechkin after further examination was ruled out for four to six weeks, with the team saying surgery would not be required.

That timeline would put Ovechkin in line to play again sometime in late December or early January.

Ovechkin scored 15 goals in his first 18 games before getting injured to move 27 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record. His next against a different goaltender will be his 179th, also setting a league mark and breaking a tie with Jaromir Jagr.

The Capitals have won four in a row since losing their first two without Ovechkin. They are first in the Eastern Conference about a quarter of the way through the season and have gone 8 for 20 on the power play in six games without Ovechkin, already the all-time leader in power-play goals with 316.

“We’ve had to throw something together pretty quickly because we’ve had a staple there for years in a certain spot,” Carbery said. “These five guys have come together, ‘OK, what do we want to do?’ That has been really impressive to see them getting on the same page as quickly as they have with Alex being out.”

Carbery said winger Sonny Milano, who also skated prior to practice, has a “long way to go” to get back in the lineup following his upper-body injury.

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Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press