“Success, remember is the reward of toil.”
-- Sophocles
When the 2013 season started, the Washington Capitals had a depth chart
for defensemen that might have looked like this…
- Mike Green
- Karl Alzner
- John Carlson
- Roman Hamrlik
- Dmitry Orlov
- Jack Hillen
One of the odd men out in that scenario was John Erskine, who between
assorted injuries (shoulder, lower body) and healthy scratches was coming off a
2011-2012 season in which he played in only 28 games.
Erskine’s 2013 season was not much different from his 2011-2012 season
with respect to the injury bug – he missed 12 games in March due to an
upper-body injury – and he missed another three games in February for elbowing Wayne
Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers. But
he did dress for 30 games, and by the end of the season, with Hamrlik waived
and off to the New York Rangers, Orlov injured and trying to rehabilitate his
game with the Hershey Bears in the AHL, and Hillen injured in the first game of
the season and trying to work his way back into the lineup after missing 25
games, Erskine found himself by year’s end on the second defensive pairing with
John Carlson.
For Erskine it was a productive year, in the technical sense of the
term. While his 0.10 goals-per-game was
modest, it was the best such mark he posted over an 11-year career. His 0.20 points-per-game was his best since
posting a 0.24 points-per-game mark in in first year with the Capitals in
2006-2007. He was plus-10 over 30 games,
a plus-27 pace over 82 games, also a career best. His 32 shots on goal in 30 games was the only
season in his career in which he averaged more than a shot per game.
The problem for Erskine was, as it has been in so many of his seasons
with the Capital, injuries. In seven
years with the Caps, Erskine has missed 121 games to injury or illness
(tsn.ca), including the 12 he missed in the 2013 season due to an upper body
injury.
Although the games played did not change much for Erskine this season –
30 this year, 28 last season – the ice time did. Befitting his partnership with John Carlson
on the second defensive pairing (78 percent of his 5-on-5 ice time was spent
with Carlson), Erskine’s total ice time jumped from 12:05 per game to 18:27,
and his even strength ice time jumped from 11:33 per game to 16:13. It amounted to more than one extra shift per
period per game (17.5 shifts per game in 2011-2012 to 21.9 shifts per game in
2013).
The thing is with that pairing is that Erskine’s influence – or at
least his presence – had a salutary effect on Carlson. When on ice together, Carlson’s 5-on-5 goals
for were better (0.939 GF/20 vs. 0.824 GF/20 when apart), the goals against
were better (0.692 GA/20 vs. 0.733 when apart, numbers from stats.hockeyanalysis.com).
There was not a lot of ice time with these players spent apart, but in
terms of even strength outcomes, Erskine did not appear to be a liability. Of course, that also might be tempered by the
fact that the top four forwards with whom Erskine shared 5-on-5 ice time ice
time were, in order: Mike Ribeiro, Alex Ovechkin, Troy Brouwer, and Nicklas
Backstrom.
Odd Erskine Stat… John Erskine scored three goals for the Caps this
season, all of which came at Verizon Center, and all of which came in
noteworthy games. His first of the
season put the Caps ahead to stay in what would become Adam Oates’ first win as
head coach, a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on January 27th. His second goal came on February 26th
in a 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, which spoiled Alexander Semin’s
first game in Washington since leaving the club in free agency after the
2011-2012 season. His third goal came on
March 7th in a 7-1 win against the Florida Panthers. His goal, the first of the contest, set in
motion a four-goal barrage in 6:12, the second-fastest four-goal start in team
history.
Game to Remember… April 23rd vs. Winnipeg. John Erskine was the emergency goaltender of
sorts on the evening on which the Capitals clinched the Southeast Division
title. Just one minute after Matt
Hendricks scored for the Caps to post the home team to a 1-0 lead, Erskine dove
through the crease to block a Bryan Little shot that was targeted to the back
of an empty net. Then, with the clock
ticking toward 6:00 remaining in the first period, it was Erskine again,
sweeping the puck off the goal line after a deflection of a shot by Aaron
Gagnon (who Erskine was tying up in the low slot) hit goaltender Braden Holtby
and climbed over his shoulder to fall into the crease. Erskine added an assist on the goal that
would give the Caps the lead for good, and as if to punctuate his performance,
took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with 22 seconds left in the 5-3 win.
Game to Forget… February 12th vs. Florida. Florida proved a pesky adversary on this
night. The Caps scored first, but
Florida took leads on three separate occasions, taking a 5-3 lead on goals
straddling the second intermission, both of which Erskine was on ice for,
making it a total three such on-ice goals for Erskine in the game. He added a penalty for good measure. It was the only game all season in which Erskine
finished as bad as minus-2.
Post season… Live by the second pairing, die by the second
pairing. Erskine tied with John Carlson –
his second pairing defensive partner – for the most goals scored against the
Caps while on ice (eight) in the seven-game loss to the New York Rangers. He also did
not finish any of the seven games against the New York Rangers in plus
territory (minus-4 overall). He is not
expected to provide anything more than serendipitous offense, but he did not
record a shot on goal in any of the last three games of the series and was last
among Caps defensemen in that regard overall (six shots on goal for the series).
In the end…
John Erskine almost never lacks for effort, but one still has the
feeling that he would be a much better third-pair defenseman than a solution as
a second-pair defenseman with John Carlson.
It was the second pair that was exploited by the New York Rangers in the
playoffs, denting it for half of the goals the Rangers scored in the
series. When Erskine was getting
significant minutes against the Southeast Division, he was fine – 2-2-4,
plus-10 in 12 games. But in 25 games
outside the division (including playoffs), he was 1-2-3, minus-4. In a sense Erskine is the canary in the coal
mine, the signal of questionable blue line depth. Circumstance led to Erskine taking second
pair minutes this season – Roman Hamrlik not performing as expected, then
waived; Dmitry Orlov and Jack Hillen suffering injuries, the inability of Jeff
Schultz to dent the lineup. That does
not mean Erskine is a solution at that position. Hard worker though he is, there are better
ways to employ his effort.
Grade: B-
Photo: Elsa/Getty Images North America
No comments:
Post a Comment