Many Caps players competed to inherit the mantle of the great Jay Beagle, the heralded role of fourth-line center, but only one man actually won it: Nic Dowd.
By The Numbers
| 64 | games played |
| 10.3 | time on ice per game |
| 8 | goals |
| 14 | assists |
| 49.5 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted |
| 48.8 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted |
| 60.8 | 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
Take
There’s a lot we could talk about with Nic Dowd.
He had the highest faceoff win percentage among Washington’s full-time centers with 51.3 percent.
And he blocked a bigger percentage of the shot attempts he faced than any Caps forward — as well as all but nine of the top 365 NHL forwards.
And while a man down he slowed down opponents more than any other Caps penalty-killer.
And while those are all lovely traits for a fourth-line center to have, and while Dowd earned the hell out of his new three-year deal, I’m stuck on his goals.
- opening night blowout goal
- goal to secure a playoff spot
- goal to secure Metro Division championship
- first penalty-shot goal in Caps playoff history
He scored nine goals total between the regular season and playoffs, and almost half of them were like big-deal, milestone, call-your-parents goals.
Anyway, the fourth line is in good hands. Maybe they should play more.
‘Dowder Power’ (sorry) on RMNB
- Dowd was signed to a low-stakes deal last summer, expected to compete for the 4C role, which Dowd rightly won.
- Dowd kicked off the season right: scoring a nifty spin-o-rama goal against the Bs.
- Brennin performed an important act of public service with this story of the top-10 reasons to love Nic Dowd.
- Dowd escaped.
- Nic Dowd gave Carl Hagelin a jailbreak pass to give the deadline acquisition his second goal as a Cap.
- With another deadline pickup, Dowd combined with Nick Jensen to score the goal that locked up the Caps’ postseason appearance. Dowd and Jensen were college roommates and were in one another’s weddings.
- Dowd also scored the goal that clinches the division win.
DOWDER POWER 2-1 #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/fyVGs2LWkd
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 5, 2019
- This happened, and Nathan (of TJ Yoshie, Knuble’s Knights, Brouwer Rangers fame) was NOT happy about it.
- In April, the Caps extended Dowd for three more years.
- Dowd will forever be the guy who scored the first playoffs penalty-shot goal in franchise history.
Your Turn
I dunno. What do you wanna talk about? What is there to talk about with Dowd? He’s solid in an important and often-overlooked role. How do you talk about that? I dunno. Write a haiku or something.
Read more: Japers Rink
