Photo credit: Rob Carr
On Saturday night, Nate Schmidt and Andre Burakovsky sat out as the Capitals faced the Devils in Newark. Tom Wilson, the first line right wing, was also benched for most of second period. Barry Trotz’s weapon is ice time, and he uses it.
For Schmidt, it was his first scratch of the season, coming on the heels of excellent play alongside Mike Green throughout the year. The game before, Schmidt had misplayed Blue Jackets forward Michael Chaput, who scored a game-tying goal late in the game.
“Sometimes you have to reset players when they’re not going very well,” Trotz said the benchings. “You have to give them a little jolt.”
In the main, this is a perfectly reasonable strategy. Wilson and Burakovsky have both lagged recently, so less playing time is expected. Trotz, however, may be overly motivated by single plays rather than overall trends, as Peter has pointed out. We got a bit of a reminder of that tonight.
Burakovsky's rank among 11 Caps forwards.
Points/60: 1st
Goal diff: 4th
CorsiRel: 4th
PDO: 4th
TOI: 10th
iCorsi: 5th
Goals/60: 10th— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 19, 2014
Chimera's rank among 11 Caps forwards.
Points/60: 7st
Goal diff: 10th
CorsiRel: 11th
PDO: 5th
TOI: 8th
iCorsi: 7th
Goals/60: 7th— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 19, 2014
Mike Green has been brilliant lately. He made two telepathic passes to lead the Capitals over the Jackets last week. Against the Senators on Monday, he registered two more assists, for a total of five points in his last three games. Green did, however, make a costly turnover that led to Ottawa’s lone goal.
“Don’t do it again or you’ll be pine-ing it,” Trotz said, once again bringing up the prospect of benching a player who has played well overall. Trotz, nevertheless, added an addendum to his comments.
“Mike Green has been the X-factor since he’s come back,” the coach added. “You just got to forget. He’s not trying to do it. … He knew it when he came to the bench. He said ‘I’ll get it back, I’ll get it back.’”
“Mike’s a very mature player,” Trotz concluded. “Those mistakes are very far and few between for Mike this year. It’s gonna happen.”
While Green may be facing only moderate heat from Trotz, Wilson seems to be getting baked in the oven. Wilson’s possession numbers were poor on Monday, though his linemates, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, fared even worse. T-Wilz also took a dumb boarding penalty that put the Capitals shorthanded in the first. Trotz responded by benching Wilson for almost 20 minutes of game time, with Jay Beagle, who later scored, taking his place alongside Backstrom and Ovi. When Wilson got back on the ice, he was skating on the fourth line.
“Too many pucks are dying with Tom right now,” Trotz said. “He’s got to get his feet moving. There are too many turnovers for him.”
“Tom is probably gonna miss some shifts here and there because it seems to work,” the coach added.
