TJ Oshie: 2021-22 season review

TJ Oshie is getting older, and he lost a lot of time to a foot injury, but it sure seems like he’s still got the stuff.

By the Numbers

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.

Exit Interview

Peter’s Take

TJ Oshie was not quite himself in 2021-22 season due to a broken foot that kept him out of much of the season and hampered him once he returned. But in his 44 games, Oshie still seemed to have his offensive touch. Here’s his rates over the past five seasons.

I’ve rung this bell before, but Oshie’s resistance to the aging curve is very impressive. (This is one of the many topics I have been wrong about.) He plays a game that has both physicality and finesse, both of which I thought would have dropped off. And yet here we are, with Oshie on a 20-goal pace at age 35.

There are three more years on Oshie’s deal ($5.75M cap hit), and each will be harder than the last. I’m skeptical that Oshie will justify a top-six spot when he’s 38, the downright disgusting age that I currently am. But that’s a problem for the future (though I hope the front office is ready for it). In the meantime, I’m expecting a bounce-back season for Oshie in defiance of age and reason, because that’s the kind of player he is.

According to Orson Welles

Osh on RMNB

• We begin like we end. With golf. I don’t do golf, but here’s a story about Oshie and golf.
• Oshie on escaping the expansion draft: “I’m so happy to be here. This is my home.”
• Tom Wilson on Oshie’s physicality: “Osh actually always ends up picking a tough guy to go with. One of his first bouts was with [Bruins defenseman Adam] McQuaid and he always holds his own. He’s strong. He’s strong.” He said “he’s strong” twice.
• On October 25, Oshie got a hat trick. Someone threw a bra on the ice. We wrote about the latter.
• Days later we learned Oshie was out long-term with a lower-body that was eventually disclosed as a broken foot.
• The injury did not stop Oshie from doing Halloween.
• Oshie was reactivated on November 20, but immediately was re-injured. Don’t rush back from injury, folks.
• Laviolette on Oshie’s re-injury: “This was something that was from last night, something different (than his foot injury).”
• Oshie on that same injury: “I got out in the game in San Jose where the foot was still in pain, but I thought I could play and make an impact. Then the back went out in that game for no reason really and everything snowballed from there.”
• Anywayyyy Oshie was returned to LTIR.
• Oshie finally returned on December 4. We covered the butt taps from warmups.
• Two weeks later: COVID protocol. He spent his birthday and Christmas quarantining away from his family. Dickensian.
• January 15: A new injury, this one upper body. He went onto LTIR again.
• Oshie vs his daugher’s second-grade math homework. Here’s the problem. the answer will be below.

• Oshie returned from that injury and then got another one. He’s like Band of Brothers after Bastogne, except he’s just one guy.
• Advocating for Ovi’s goal total.
• On April 5, we learned about the players-only meeting. “We’re not playing to our identity,” Oshie said. “I don’t think any amount of coaching would get you out of that.”
• In the playoffs, Oshie put a controversial hit on Sam Bennett but escaped supplemental discipline.

Your Turn

At what point should we start thinking of Oshie as a middle-six forward? When he can’t deliver 20 goals or what? Also, did you get the answer right? Here it is. It took me a few minutes to be honest.

Read more: Japers Rink