The stats are both real and related: With 39-year-old Alex Ovechkin in the lineup for the first 18 games of the season, the Washington Capitals led the NHL with 4.33 goals per game. Since Ovechkin went down with a broken bone in his leg Nov. 18, they have managed 2.94 goals. You don’t have to own the hockey brain of Conn Smythe or Scotty Bowman to figure out there’s a correlation.

But here’s the odd thing about Ovechkin’s absence, one that should end Saturday night in Toronto: It may have been more encouraging than discouraging. On the night Ovechkin got hurt — when he scored two goals before going down in a game at Utah — the Capitals had the highest points percentage of any team in the Eastern Conference. As he skated — and skated hard — at Friday’s post-Christmas practice in Arlington, Virginia, the Caps still had the highest points percentage in the East. What does that prove? Start with the idea that the Capitals haven’t just put together a good start but that the Capitals are, in fact, a good team. More than that: They lost Ovechkin when he was absolutely torrid, leading the league in goals and on a seven-goals-in-five-games heater. And they more than survived, going 10-5-1 without their absolute engine.

That leads to the conclusion that this is the deepest, most complete Capitals team since the Stanley Cup winners of 2017-18 ended an era in which regular season success was assumed and playoff runs were realistic.

Yeah, we haven’t yet reached even the halfway point of a season that will have more twists and turns to come. Nothing has been determined. Maybe Ovi won’t score upon his return as he was scoring when he went out. But damned if it doesn’t seem like a solid team is getting its Hall of Famer back — and could roll from here.

“It feels a little bit like some of those really good teams we had, maybe ’15, ’16, ’17, where you never felt like you were out of it,” forward Tom Wilson said. “You always felt like somebody in your room could step up and make a good play or a big play. Just the ability and that confidence to go into games expecting that we’re going to win and wanting to win every night is a huge, huge thing. … We’ve built that this far in the season, but there’s still lots of hockey left.”

Lots of hockey for the Caps. Lots of hockey for Ovechkin. No piece can be written about the walking, skating, shooting, scoring, checking legend without an update on his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals mark of 894.

That update: Ovechkin needs 26 goals in the Caps’ final 48 games of the season to tie Gretzky, 27 to pass him. His pre-injury pace of .833 goals per night — not sustainable for a normal human, but who’s to say about this cyborg? — would get him there easily. To pass Gretzky this year, he would need .563 goals a game — a tick down from his career mark of .601.

Translation: This is doable. Even after a month-and-a-half absence because he broke his leg. And it is astounding.

“It’s incredible the magnitude of what’s going on around us,” said defenseman John Carlson, who has been a teammate for 16 of Ovechkin’s 20 seasons. “Then you just see him rolling in, being himself and having fun just like a kid going out for recess — it’s a fun feeling. I mean, it’s fun for me. I’m sure the young guys that haven’t been in the NHL too long, their heads are spinning when he’s in the room.”

They can’t be spinning when Ovechkin returns to the ice — not if the Capitals are to fulfill their obvious potential, not if they’re to maintain their position solidly in the playoff field, possibly as one of the East’s top seeds. In that regard, Ovechkin’s return is like the best trade deadline acquisition in the league — months before the trade deadline actually happens. The Caps did just fine in the captain’s absence. To thrive, they need him.

Go back to those goals-per-game stats, pre- and post-injury. That’s not all because Ovechkin was out, because the Caps were burying an unsustainably high percentage of their shots over the first month-and-a-half of the season. But it’s not nothing, either.

“I’ve talked a few times about this at various points of his being out of our lineup that the scoring — and lack thereof at times — was noticeable,” coach Spencer Carbery said. “… I do think there is a little bit of a piece there that when he’s on the ice and he’s on our bench and he’s taking shifts, there’s always the potential that he’s going to shoot a puck in the back of the net. And I do think as a teammate, linemate, someone that dresses for the Washington Capitals, that makes you feel good your own self because you always feel like he’s going to find a way to score that night.”

For the first time in 5½ weeks, that night could be Saturday. It might be nice if Ovechkin’s return came at home. It’s actually kind of appropriate that it’s likely to be on “Hockey Night in Canada” in Toronto, one of the sport’s shiniest regular season stages. Ovechkin has 24 goals in his 29 regular season games at Scotiabank Arena. What’s the over-under on Ovi goals as he shakes off the rust Saturday night? Maybe 1.5?

That’s appointment television. The Capitals have developed themselves into that kind of programming as the new year approaches. They are that and then some with Alex Ovechkin back in the lineup. As he prepares to return, take solace in the fact that the Capitals maintained their spot in the standings without him. But recall what they’re getting back — an absolutely historic figure who somehow doesn’t age — and know that to be their best, he has to be some version of his best, too.

“You can’t replace him,” Carlson said. “You can’t replace his personality. You can’t replace his presence. All that stuff — his on-ice ability, scoring. There’s no one like him. I’ve played with a lot of guys. There’s not one person like him.”

Welcome back, Ovi. Let’s see where this season goes.