Ethan Bear signed a two-year contract with the Washington Capitals before the new year. The 26-year-old defenseman made his debut against the Nashville Predators on December 30 and has since played five games overall for his new team.
Head coach Spencer Carbery was asked on Tuesday to review the new blueliner’s start and the rookie bench boss was blunt in his disappointment of Bear’s play recently.
“First two games I really liked and now I feel like there’s been a bit of a regression partly because of that back-to-back,” Carbery said. “Last game I thought was a struggle for him.”
Bear played the least of any Capitals defender against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, skating 15:04 of total ice time. At five-on-five with him on the ice, the Capitals held negative differentials in shot attempts (-7), scoring chances (-7), and high-danger chances (-4).
Bear was also on the ice for LA’s second goal, a Kevin Fiala rebound in front of Darcy Kuemper, as he skated on the right side of the Capitals’ third pairing next to Joel Edmundson.
“I just think what he needs to do as a solid, reliable NHL defenseman is be able to defend in one-on-one situations, whether that’s off the rush or in defensive zone coverage,” Carbery said. “You have to be able to do that at a really high level and you have to be able to move pucks. Those two areas for him have taken a bit of a step back over the last two games of being able to move the puck cleanly and effectively and not give it to the opposition.
“Those two things are the main focus for us in getting him back to that, adding to his game, and helping him with little habits and details inside our structure. But without those two foundational things, as a young defenseman, you’re going to be chasing it.”
Through his first five games, Bear has been on the ice at five-on-five for five goals against and just two for the Capitals. The team is lucky it’s not even worse as they are getting smashed so far in his five-on-five minutes.
With him over the boards, the Capitals are seeing just 37.8 percent of the shot attempts, 24.2 percent of the expected goals, 27.2 percent of the scoring chances, and 25.6 percent of the high-danger chances. The 82:51 of five-on-five ice time is still a small sample size but clearly enough for Carbery to sound some alarm bells.
Bear has also yet to find a stable defense partner with the Capitals. He has skated with three different partners in Edmundson, Trevor van Riemsdyk, and Rasmus Sandin over his first five games. The team’s defense overall has been in a state of flux recently not only due to Bear’s addition but also because both Sandin and Martin Fehervary have missed recent games due to injury or illness.
Sandin has missed the last two games and is now out with what the Capitals are calling an upper-body injury. That means that Bear will likely be right back in the lineup on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken to try and immediately right some of his wrongs from the game against the Kings.
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
