His maternal grandfather is gravely ill in hospital, and Ovechkin has returned to Russia:
http://capitals.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=388878
Tarik's latest update says he'll miss Nashville and Buffalo at the least:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalsinsider/
edit Sunday, November 2nd:
http://alexovetjkin.blogspot.com/2008/11/liferu-reports-that-ovechkins.html
edit Monday, November 3, from Tarik's blog:
"I feel good and I feel bad," he said. "I feel good I saw my grandpa, but I feel bad I didn't play and couldn't help my teammates win the game."
He went out of his way to point out that his grandfather is still alive, which is contrary to a report out of Russia that said he had passed.
"Can you imagine, I go home and my fiends (sic) call me and say, 'I'm so sorry your grandfather died," Ovechkin said.
Where did that come from?
"I don't know. Some idiot," he said.
