Photo: Greg Fiume
The Capitals managed to earn half the points available to them this week, a good reversal from the last month, but not enough to put them back on pace for a postseason just yet. To make matters worse, a slew of injuries now imperil the team’s ability to even maintain their middling performance. Top-four defenceman Mike Green went down with an injury this week (he may or may not return on Sunday), as did top possession center Mikhail Grabovski, whose leg injury has him “a ways away” from returning. Brooks Laich is struggling with an injury of his own that he says is unrelated to his nagging groin problems and will be a game-time decision as well.
Those injuries will result in diminished team play for sure, but they’ll also lead to some new lineups and pairings. Players who haven’t gotten a lot of ice so far are about to get promoted in a Grabo-less, Green-less, Laich-less world. How those players will fare in their bigger roles may go a long way to determining this team’s life after April 13th.
These are the numbers as of a little before noon on Sunday, February 2nd. It’s Groundhog Day! Great movie. Great, great movie. The sample is restricted to 5-on-5 play while the score is close. That means within one goal in the first two periods and tied in the third. That way special teams, blowouts, and comebacks don’t color the data. Stats of note are highlighted in powderpuff pink and discussed below.
See previous snapshots: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7, week 8, week 9, week 10, week 11, week 12, week 13, week 14, week 15, week 16, week 17
Player | Pos | GP | TOI | GF | GA | SA% | Sh% | Sv% | PDO | ZS% |
Aaron Volpatti | L | 39 | 192.4 | 3 | 5 | 39.2% | 4.6% | 94.7% | 99.4 | 53.6% |
Alex Ovechkin | L | 51 | 483.7 | 15 | 20 | 49.9% | 5.6% | 92.6% | 98.1 | 59.2% |
Brooks Laich | C | 41 | 330.5 | 10 | 10 | 46.8% | 7.1% | 93.9% | 101 | 50.7% |
Eric Fehr | R | 46 | 373.6 | 11 | 17 | 51.1% | 5.8% | 90.9% | 96.7 | 49.2% |
Jason Chimera | L | 55 | 446.3 | 21 | 24 | 47.6% | 8.9% | 90.5% | 99.4 | 45.7% |
Jay Beagle | C | 35 | 203 | 2 | 5 | 46.5% | 2.4% | 94.4% | 96.8 | 52.3% |
Joel Ward | R | 55 | 430 | 19 | 22 | 49.5% | 8.5% | 90.4% | 99 | 47.3% |
Marcus Johansson | C | 55 | 470 | 15 | 23 | 48.2% | 6.8% | 90.8% | 97.5 | 54.8% |
Martin Erat | R | 47 | 331 | 14 | 15 | 50.9% | 8.5% | 91.3% | 99.8 | 48.8% |
Michael Latta | C | 17 | 67.6 | 3 | 4 | 48.1% | 10.3% | 88.2% | 98.6 | 48.5% |
Mikhail Grabovski | C | 49 | 430.4 | 20 | 14 | 50.5% | 8.7% | 93.9% | 102.5 | 51.8% |
Nicklas Backstrom | C | 55 | 502.2 | 14 | 22 | 49.9% | 5.2% | 92.2% | 97.4 | 55.4% |
Tom Wilson | R | 55 | 255.7 | 7 | 9 | 45.7% | 7.1% | 92.4% | 99.4 | 57.4% |
Troy Brouwer | R | 55 | 445.6 | 13 | 13 | 47.6% | 6.9% | 94.3% | 101.3 | 50% |
Player | Pos | GP | TOI | GF | GA | SA% | Sh% | Sv% | PDO | ZS% |
Nate Schmidt | D | 29 | 283.1 | 12 | 10 | 50.6% | 8.5% | 93.4% | 101.8 | 55.9% |
John Erskine | D | 29 | 280.9 | 10 | 13 | 46.8% | 7.7% | 90.7% | 98.4 | 47.6% |
John Carlson | D | 55 | 568.2 | 17 | 27 | 46.4% | 6.2% | 91.6% | 97.7 | 50% |
Karl Alzner | D | 55 | 571.8 | 16 | 22 | 47.2% | 5.8% | 92.8% | 98.6 | 50.4% |
Mike Green | D | 51 | 594.4 | 18 | 20 | 53.7% | 5.8% | 92.9% | 98.7 | 56% |
Connor Carrick | D | 16 | 137.1 | 2 | 7 | 42.6% | 3.5% | 90.4% | 93.9 | 50% |
Dmitry Orlov | D | 29 | 350.2 | 9 | 13 | 54.3% | 4.9% | 91.9% | 96.9 | 52.4% |
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