Nick Jensen has been one of the few constants in the Washington Capitals’ lineup this season, receiving a jersey from head coach Spencer Carbery in all of the team’s 34 games to this point. That streak of appearances looks like it could be coming to an end, however, if Monday’s practice group is any indication.
Jensen skated on the team’s extra defense pairing with the oft-scratched Alex Alexeyev. Carbery expounded upon the reasoning for that move after the skate and revealed that he wasn’t too happy with how the 33-year-old blueliner handled the Nashville Predators in Saturday’s 3-2 shootout loss.
“I thought he really struggled last game,” Carbery said Monday. “I thought Jens had gone on a real good run of playing solid, reliable minutes for us. He’s always going to be great on the penalty kill, he does a good job there. Competes his butt off every second of every shift so that stuff is never an issue.
“It’s more the puck play and positioning and the decisions. When that gets away from him, that’s where we gotta get that back. The other night it got away from him a little bit so that’s where we as coaches and Mitch Love need to find different options.”
Jensen played just 14:52 of ice time against the Predators, the least amount he has played in a game this season. He hasn’t played less than that in a non-injury impacted game for the Capitals since November 21, 2021 in a 5-2 loss on the road in Seattle (14:26).
The Capitals did struggle at five-on-five with Jensen on the ice, posting negative differentials in shot attempts (-5), scoring chances (-3), and high-danger chances (-2). The poor game was one of many this season for Jensen as he has struggled in the first season of the three-year, $12.15 million extension he signed last February.
In over 536 minutes of five-on-five action, Jensen has been the team’s poorest regular defender in process stats. The Capitals have seen just 44.9 percent of the shot attempts, 41.5 percent of the expected goals, 43.2 percent of the scoring chances, and 42.7 percent of the high-danger chances with Jensen over the boards.
After a 2022-23 season where he almost put up 30 points, Jensen has just six points through 34 games this year. He has yet to score his first goal of the campaign.
The Capitals’ recent signing of defenseman Ethan Bear has thrown the club’s defense pairings into a state of upheaval. Bear’s right-handedness means that typically one of John Carlson, Trevor van Riemsdyk, or Jensen would have to sit to get Bear into games.
With sitting Carlson virtually out of the question, the decision comes down to TVR and Jensen. Last week it appeared that TVR would be the odd man out but now Jensen looks like he’s on the verge of a healthy scratch against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
