“Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing
great was ever achieved.”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you can find a picture of Washington Capitals defenseman
Nate Schmidt in which he is not grinning, keep it. They are rare and might be worth something
someday. You could go back, perhaps to
the dawn of franchise history, and not find a Capital who included a smile on
all but permanent display. You almost
can hear him utter the famous Ernie Banks quote about his love and enthusiasm
for the game… “It’s a beautiful day for a game, let’s play two.”
It even goes back to when he was a sophomore at St. Cloud
Cathedral High School in Minnesota, an outfielder/pitcher whose favorite TV
show was “Family Guy (according to the Caps media guide, it still is).”
And why shouldn’t he be happy? He was not drafted by an NHL team, but he
played three seasons in his home state for one of the storied programs in NCAA
hockey at the University of Minnesota.
He signed a free agent contract with the Washington Capitals, and split
time between the Caps and the AHL Hershey Bears for two seasons before sticking
full-time with the Caps last season. In
2015-2016, Schmidt set a personal best in games played (72), tied a career-high
in goals (two), tripled his career assist total (14; he had seven going into
the season), and more than doubled his career point total (16; he had ten when
the season started.
It was also a case of the more ice time Schmidt got in
2015-2016, the better the Caps did. Washington was 18-3-3 in games where Schmidt
skated more than 20 minutes, 31-15-4 in games in which he skated less than 20
minutes. That might be an effect of the Caps
leading in games and having more of a luxury to give a third pair defenseman
like Schmidt more ice time than they would if they were trying to come from
behind, but neither Schmidt nor the Caps suffered with more ice time.
Fearless’ Take…
Schmidt has not been a dominant possession player, but he
has been a consistent one. In each of
his three seasons with the Caps, he finished the year over 50 percent Corsi-for
at 5-on-5. He was at 50.60 percent in
2015-2016, fourth among Caps defensemen with at least 100 5-on-5 minutes
(numbers from Corsica.hockey). And that
smile isn’t plastered on his face all the time.
Schmidt logged the first two fighting majors of his career in 2015-2016,
one against Tampa Bay’s J.T. Brown on December 12th, the other against
Arizona’s Max Domi on April 2nd.
They were the first fights for Schmidt since his USHL days in
2009-2010. He had only six penalty
minutes all season outside of those fights, and he had only two penalty minutes
at home all season, and that was a delay-of-game penalty against Montreal the
day after Christmas. Small wonder he got
a third-place vote in the Lady Byng voting for most gentlemanly player, even
with the two fights.
Cheerless’ Take…
Another case of, “yeah, and what did you do during the
playoffs?” Ten games, one point (an
assist), minus-3, no shots on goal in six of the ten games in which he did
play, just nine minutes of ice time in Game 5 against Pittsburgh in the second
round, and he was benched for the Caps’ next game –their last of the season –
the overtime loss to Pittsburgh in Game 6.
It was an extension of the tail end of his regular season in which he
was 0-5-5, minus-1 in his last 35 games.
That’s 0-6-6, minus-5 in the last 45 games in which he played last
season.
The Big Question… Is Nate Schmidt now a permanent fixture on
the Caps’ blue line?
In three years with the Caps, Nate Schmidt has made modest
progress toward becoming a permanent member of the top-six on defense. His games played progressed from 29 to 39 to
72, and he got his first taste of postseason action last spring. There is, however, the matter of his
performance over the last half of the season.
It was not a major step backward, but his progress seemed to have
stalled. Perhaps it was a product of the
season’s length, his playing in more games in the NHL that in his first two
seasons combined and more minutes (about three more minutes per game at even
strength than in 2014-2015).
It is all but certain that Schmidt will be penciled in on
the third pair and will fill that role on a regular basis, absent
injuries. It is a situation that should
suit the Caps and Schmidt well, the team being talented and deep enough to
accommodate Schmidt’s continued progress up the ladder of development and
experience.
In the end…
Nate Schmidt is a “young” 25 years old in terms of his NHL
experience to date – 140 regular season and ten postseason games. He has a good foundation under him, and he
has made progress in sufficient amounts and timing to suggest that he is not
done improving. This season will open a
little bit differently for Schmidt in that there is little question at the top
that he’s in the top-six. Given the Caps’
situation once they get past the top-six, it will be important to solidify his
position and improve on the gains he has made.
The biggest part of that is going to be, as it will be for a
number of young Capitals who underperformed late in the season and in the
playoffs, avoiding a late-season swoon.
A third-pair defenseman is not going to carry the club for any length of
time, if at all, but neither can he disappear at that time of year,
either. If Nate Schmidt can make timely,
if not a high volume, of contributions late in the season and into the spring,
he and the Caps will have a lot to smile about over next summer.
Projection: 74 games, 4-14-18, plus-11
Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images North America
