The Stanley Cup Playoffs have been devastating to your bracket, probably. Early exits from Boston, Colorado, and Toronto meant that a ton of pre-loffs favorites have lost their chance at a Cup. They’ve also meant that a ton of former Capitals players have been eliminated from the postseason, leaving just a scant few remaining.
Here are those losses and survivors.
Before the playoffs began, I determined that there was a 69-percent chance that an ex-Cap would win the Cup. I identified 17 players I was following, of of whom only three remain.
First, our eliminated.
- Dmitry Orlov, Boston Bruins. Orlov had eight assists before his adopted Bruins lost to the Panthers. It’s unclear if the Bs will try or even be able to re-sign him. He’s recently been seen in DC, which is where his stuff is.
- Garnet Hathaway, Boston Bruins. It was a quiet playoffs for Hathaway, who had just one secondary assist in seven games, in which he was deployed almost always in the defensive end.
- Lars Eller, Colorado Avalanche. Goose eggs in the boxcar stats (zero goals, zero assists) before his Avs lost game seven to the Kraken.
- Pheonix Copley, Los Angeles Kings. Copley played less than 30 minutes in the postseason, all in relief. The Kings lost to the Oilers in six games.
- Marcus Johansson, Minnesota Wild. Mojo scored two goals for the Wild, but goalies saved just .865 behind him until his team lost to Dallas in six games.
- Jonas Siegenthaler, New Jersey Devils. Siegenthaler was probably the Devils’ strongest defender in the series (over in five games to the Hurricanes, who have no ex-Caps on their roster). Siegenthaler’s puck-over-glass penalty sort of ended the season for his Devils.
- Vitek Vanecek, New Jersey Devils. Statistically, the worst goalie of the postseason, allowing 7.6 goals more than expected (21 goals on 13.4 expected goals). Really bad.
- Daniel Sprong, Seattle Kraken. Sprong’s team is still alive, but an upper-body injury has him out at least through the end of this round.
- Andre Burakovsky, Seattle Kraken. Burakovsky has not played since February due to a lower-body injury. He got surgery last month.
- Erik Gustafsson, Toronto Maple Leafs. Gus suffered an upper-body injury in game two of the first round and was not seen again before the Leafs’ elimination at the hands of the Panthers.
- Ilya Samsonov, Toronto Maple Leafs. After a hot first round, Samsonov was not as great for the Leafs in the second before getting hurt (upper-body) in game three.
- Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Winnipeg Jets. He played one game, just five minutes.
- Brenden Dillon, Winnipeg Jets. Dillon was really good for the Jets, who lost in five to the Stars. Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger simply shut his team down.
- Nate Schmidt, Winnipeg Jets. Schmidt spent too much time on the wrong end of the ice. The Jets were outscored 4 to 2 when he was on.
Those players represented 61 of the 69 percentage-point chances that an ex-Cap would win the Cup. Everyone remaining I included just as an asterisk in that story. They are:
- Chandler Stephenson, Vegas Golden Knights. The one who got away, Stephenson has six goals and four assists. He’s great. His team will try to eliminate the Oilers tonight.
- Radko Gudas, Florida Panthers. Gudas was crucial to the Panthers beating the Leafs in overtime of game five. He’s a way better player than his one season in DC made it seem.
- Philipp Grubauer, Seattle Kraken. I thought Grubauer’s career was over last season, when he saved 32 goals worse than expected in the Kraken’s inaugural campaign. He has steadily improved, putting up positive stats in this postseason (saving 1.2 goals better than expected).
The Vegas-Edmonton and Seattle-Dallas series are tight. By Tuesday, it could be that the only ex-Capitals player left in the playoffs is the one who played just 63 games with them in the Covid year.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/Elizabeth Kong/RMNB
