Photo: Greg Fiume

One of the biggest differences between the Caps under Barry Trotz and the Caps under Adam Oates is the role of defensemen in offense. In February, Alex Prewitt described that role like this:

Blue-liners in Coach Barry Trotz’s system hold the freedom to pinch inside the offensive zone, collapsing onto pucks along the boards to keep possessions alive, but they also are asked to do their fair share of long-range flinging.

Last week, I looked at how badly the Caps’ forwards other than Alex Ovechkin struggle to generate shot attempts. But with Prewitt’s insight on the role of defenseman in Trotz’s system in mind, here’s a look at shot generation from the Caps defensemen, from a bit of a different angle.

There’s a glossary at the bottom, so be sure to check that out if the chart doesn’t make sense. We’re going to look at what percent of the overall shot attempts by Caps defenders each regular blue liner takes, as well as how effective each defensemen is at getting his individual shot attempts through and getting them on net.

While we use shot attempts as a proxy for meaningful puck possession, this doesn’t mean that all shot attempts are of equal value during game play. Generally, an unblocked shot attempt is preferred to one that is blocked, and a shot on goal is preferred to a shot attempt that goes wide. With that in mind, here’s a look at the six Caps defenders who have a sample size worth looking at.

All numbers are for 5v5 play only.

• It’s not entirely surprising, given his ice time and offensive skills, that John Carlson has the highest percentage of shot attempts from the blue line, having taken just over 23 percent of all shot attempts by Caps’ defensemen this season.
• Behind him are Matt Niskanen (18.99 percent) and Mike Green (17.05 percent). The Caps 3 most offensively-gifted defensemen have the three biggest percentage shares of shot attempts out of the entire defensive corps this season. This is especially impressive of Green, as he’s skated significantly less time than Niskanen and Carlson, in both raw minutes and percentage of minutes.
• Green (72.28 percent) and Carlson (70.4 percent) manage to have far more shot attempts go unblocked than the rest of the Caps defenders. Given their skill set, this isn’t particularly surprising, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Both of these guys are also around 50 percent in terms of shot attempts on goal, well ahead of the other four defenders.
• Well, we all know Brooks Orpik isn’t paid for his offensive skills. But it really is something to see that his percent of shot attempts unblocked (51.09 percent) barely eclipses Green and Carlson’s percent of shot attempts on goal. So, when Orpik shoots, it is only as likely to be unblocked as a Green or Carlson shot is to be on net.
• Niskanen’s percent of shot attempts on goal (35.12 percent) is odd. For the other two categories, he tracked in the same neighborhood as Green and Carlson. But the percent of his shots that make it on goal is last among the six defenders. He can’t even reach the Orpiksian level of 37.23 percent

But overall there are not a ton of surprises here. The Caps offensive defensemen show up as such in terms of generating shots.

Now it’s your turn. What do you find interesting in the chart?

Glossary

All numbers are 5v5 only

Percent of Caps D iSA: The percent of shot attempts by this player of shot attempts Caps defenseman this season

Percent of iSA unblocked: The percent of this individual player’s shot attempts that are unblocked.

Percent of iSA on goal: The percent of this individual player’s shot attempts that are on goal.

All stats from War on Ice