2011-12 Year-End Review: Jay Beagle

May 24, 2012 10:44 am

Photo credit: Clydeorama

Brave and reckless fight. Concussion. Broken bones. Meteoric rise. We would watch a movie based on Jay Beagle‘s season, there was a lot of plot packed into just eighty-two games.

Cap Hit: $512,500 thousand. Beagle is RFA come July 1st.

Milestones: Beagle set a new personal scoring record with four goals and five points, and also scored in the playoffs at the NHL level for the first time.

Best Moment: Scoring against Montreal, and the subsequent video played by Verizon Center entertainment crew, or perhaps his return to the lineup after missing 31 games.

Things We Said About Jay Beagle: “Jay Beagle for Hart!” “Jay Beagle for Conn Smythe!” “Jay Beagle for President!”

Alignment: Chaotic Good

First Irrelevant Google Images Result:

A bag of Skittles. (There were two women in bikinis before the Skittles, but I consider those relevant.)

Media Consensus: “Did you know that Jay Beagle is getting more ice time than Alex Ovechkin? I know, I just googled him too.”

Alternate Universe Superhero Identity: 3C. (This is his dream. We are not making this up.)

Spirit Animal: A cat.

Why?

Team Role: Was expected to be minimal. At the beginning of the year, Jay Beagle was a player more likely to be a healthy scratch than a difference maker.

Execution of that Role: Partially because of a change in coaching and partially through stubborn hard work, Jay Beagle managed to change his role with the Caps entirely in the course of a season. He became an important cog in Dale Hunter’s grinding, defensive system, trusted with key assignments and vital minutes.

Postseason Performance: Beagle played a pivotal role in the Caps’ lineup throughout the playoffs, centering a shutdown line and abruptly picking up a talent for faceoffs, apparently through sheer force of will. Perhaps the best way we can illustrate the change in Beagle’s role from beginning to end of year is that when he broke his foot and was unable to play, the fanbase was devastated and predicted disaster.

Beard Rating: Six out of ten.

Photo credit: Cheryl Nichols

Beagle himself expressed concern over his beard, but we think it turned out just fine.

Likeliness to Return: Six out of ten. Beagle is another player who played well above expectations this year, so it’s possible other teams might make an offer. However, they will have to fight me personally, so I would not advise it.

Usefulness in a Post-Apocalyptic Setting: At first, you would think that Jay Beagle was dead weight and that you might not mind if he got eaten by zombies, but then he would dramatically save your life and you’d realize that you had misjudged him all along.

Overall Year-End Rating: Ten Good Sashas.