Nick Jensen was the best part of Washington’s blue line all season long.
By the Numbers
| 76 | games played |
| 19.3 | time on ice per game |
| 5 | goals |
| 16 | assists |
| 50.2 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage |
| 51.8 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage |
| 63.7 | 5-on-5 goal percentage |
Visualization by HockeyViz
About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows lots of information for the player over 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
Fan Happiness Survey
About this visualization: At three times during the season, RMNB shared an open survey with fans, asking the following question for each player:
On a scale from 1 to 5, how HAPPY are you to have this player on the team?
1 means VERY UNHAPPY TO HAVE THEM ON THE TEAM
2 means UNHAPPY
3 means NEITHER HAPPY NOR UNHAPPY
4 means HAPPY
5 means VERY HAPPY TO HAVE THEM ON THE TEAM
The numbers above show the average score for the player in each survey period.
Peter’s Take
Wow, what a season.
Jensen, 31, had been a sleeper for most of his career, so his breakout in 2021-22 was quite the surprise. And when I say surprise, I mean it in defensive defender terms, which is to say still pretty boring overall, except in a pleasant way. Using Evolving Hockey’s goals-above-replacement metric, Jensen was Washington’s best player defensively, adding 5.7 goals (while his partner Orlov added 5.5).
Opponents had a tough time getting to the crease against Jensen, as shown in this HockeyViz heatmap. The big blue blob above the net at the bottom indicates fewer shots taken by opponents from that location.
Jensen has never been known as an offensive defender, but he hit a career high in goals and points this season (five and 21 respectively) on the strength of strong puck carriage through neutral and a slight uptick in his offensive rates (thanks, Kevin McCarthy). I have a hard time tracing this to any particular quality of his, but Evolving Hockey rates Jensen’s offense at 9.6 goals above replacement level, behind only Ovechkin and Wilson among the Capitals. I guess I can’t reckon how exactly Jensen provides big offense numbers, but it sounds cool. That offense plus drawing a net 13 minor penalties (committing nine while drawing 21), made Jensen an all-around stellar player.
The Capitals will get one more season of Jensen at $2.5 million, a steal of a price if he can repeat this season’s performance.
According to Orson Welles
Nick Jensen on RMNB
- In January, Jensen missed time after an upper-body injury suffered during a Bruins game.
- That was right after Jensen returned from COVID protocol.
- Jensen’s injury landed him on long-term injured reserve. He missed about two weeks.
Your Turn
What about Jensen’s game do you think drives that big offensive GAR number? What about his style made him so effective on both ends of the puck?
Read more: Japers Rink
