Travis Boyd: 2018-19 season review

May 7, 2019 10:50 am

Travis Boyd‘s rookie season had a slow and worrying start, but the progress he made is encouraging for 2019-20.

By The Numbers

53	games played
9.8	time on ice per game
5	goals
15	assists
49.4	5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted
45.4	5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted
58.3	5-on-5 goal percentage, adjusted

Visualization by HockeyViz

About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows various metrics for the player over the course of the season. A short description of each chart:

Most common teammates during 5-on-5
Ice time per game, split up by game state
5-on-5 adjusted shot attempts by the team (black) and opponents (red)
5-on-5 adjusted shooting percentage by the team (black) and opponents (red)
Individual scoring events by the player
5-on-5 adjusted offensive (black) and defensive (red) zone starts

Peter’s Take

Around Thanksgiving, I wrote my annual “twenty games in” series, where I maybe panicked a bit about Boyd:

Every measurement we have suggests that he’s overwhelmed out there: the Caps get outshot more than 60:40, the pace of the game skyrockets, and opponents get their shots from more dangerous areas. But the Caps as a team are shooting a team-high 15.8 percent during Boyd’s shifts, which might be masking the trouble. This won’t last, and it will hurt.

So it didn’t last, but it also didn’t hurt. Boyd’s playing context got better as he got more offensive-zone starts, and his performance got better too. He was net-negative player in cumulative on-ice goals for exactly one game (a minus-1 in mid November). By the time the Caps reached their high-water mark — after the trade deadline but before Kempny’s injury — Body was playing pretty damn good hockey for a fourth liner.

But it was still fourth-liner play. Boyd shot less often than any Caps forward except for Chandler Stephenson (who I think might just be allergic to the puck). Boyd didn’t throw hits, but he also didn’t take penalties. He scored five goals, but he needed a shooting percentage of 14 to do it. All the while he enjoyed the highest on-ice shooting and saving percentages outside of Vrana and Kuznetsov.

I don’t mean that to be a downer, and I think Boyd’s early-season struggles might also have been Todd Reirden’s early-season struggles. After auditioning Boyd as Beagle 2.0, Reirden apparently reconsidered. Boyd progressively got less and easier ice time — a cozier context in which he excelled.

I don’t know what to make of that exactly. Reirden retreated from putting his fourth line in high-leverage situations as the season grew, which might have been the sane move considering their struggles. Then again, it might have been a crutch that made life harder for the top-nine forwards. I suppose we’ll find out next season, a make-it-or-break-it contract year for Boyd. I think it’s safe to say we haven’t seen this player meet his full potential yet.

On RMNB

Last summer the Caps inked Boyd to a two-year deal near the league minimum.
But Boyd’s season had a false start. Boyd injured his foot while blocking a shot during the preseason, missing the first few weeks of the season, and prematurely settling the battle for the 4C position.

Folks, Boyd dressed up as Barry Trotz for the Caps’ Halloween party. He sure hopes Trotz didn’t see it. (Trotz definitely saw it.)
Boyd had a huge game in November, setting up goals for Vrana (who should not have been playing with Boyd) and Smith-Pelly (who, okay, yeah.)

Later that month, Boyd — and I still can’t believe this — injured teammate Michal Kempny with an overenthusiastic celebration. The 2018-19 Caps: they hugged too much.

In December, Boyd scored his first NHL goal. The assist belong to Alex Ovechkin. The goal reminds me a lot of Tom Wilson’s first NHL goal, which was giftwrapped in a similar way.
Boyd’s daughter baked him a cake to commemorate the goal. No one bakes me cakes.

Boyd had some good chemistry with Jaskin and Dowd for awhile, but obviously that didn’t work out once Jaskin framed Todd Reirden for the murder of his wife to cover up clinical trial results at Devlin McGregor or whatever the hell happened there.
In February Boyd spoke about the growth of women’s hockey. “I think maybe in years past, and if you just look at girls hockey or women’s hockey in general, the numbers from 10 years ago versus today, it’s got to be twice as many girls now playing hockey which is awesome to see. I hope that they become lifelong fans of the game.”