As we move through Day 58 of The Pause in the NHL, we move
onward with our look back at the All-Alphabet Teams we published back in
2014. In that year, we had to skip over
an “All Team-I” because from 1974 to 2014, the Caps had only one skater whose
last name began with the letter “I” – defenseman Al Iafrate. Gary Inness was the only goaltender who would
have qualified as a member of that team.
So we skipped ahead with the "All-J Team," which was as follows:
- LW: Marcus Johansson (2010-2017)
- C: Joe Juneau (1994-1999)
- RW: Keith Jones (1992-1996)
- D: Calle Johansson (1989-2004)
- D: Greg Joly (1974-1976)
- G: Al Jensen (1981-1987)
The “All-J Team” was something of an odd creature among the
skaters. It did not lack for playmaking
with Marcus Johansson and Joe Juneau up front, and Calle Johansson on the back
line. In Keith Jones, it had a grinder
representative of that type of player.
What it lacked was a true finisher.
Jones is the only player among the five who averaged 20 goals per 82
regular season games as a Capital, and just that. The
playoff profiles were a bit different.
Joe Juneau possesses one of the legendary “finishes” in Caps history, an
overtime goal in Game 6 of the 1998 Eastern Conference final against the
Buffalo Sabres (one of four game-winning goals he had of the seven goals he
recorded in that postseason, two of them in overtime) that propelled the Caps
to their first Stanley Cup final. His 24
goals per 82 postseason games as a Capital is the best of this group by far (Jones
averaged 13 goals per 82 playoff games).
While this is, on balance, a pretty good lineup, one wonders
if one or two of the five skaters might be replaced by a player from the
post-2014 period. The short answer is, “no.” Accounting for Johansson, who played 238
games with the Caps after the original 2014 team was published, there are three
skaters who dressed for the Caps with last names beginning with “J” – winger Dmitrij
Jaskin, and defensemen Nick Jensen and Jakub Jerabek. Jaskin was in and out of the lineup, dressing
for only 37 games with the Caps, going 2-6-8, minus-5. He would not replace either Johansson or
Jones on the wing. Jerabek barely made a
ripple after landing in Washington in a trade with Montreal in February
2018. He dressed for 11 regular season
games and two postseason games in the Caps’ 2018 Stanley Cup run. He does not have a strong case to make to
dent the lineup.
Nick Jensen makes the best case among the three skaters
mentioned to crack the lineup. Since
coming to the Caps in a trade with Detroit in February 2019, he has dressed for
88 regular season games, posting 13 points (all assists) and averaging 17:38 in
ice time per game. But his play has been
somewhat uneven. He is tied among
defensemen for the worst even-strength goal differential this season (minus-2),
and his giveaways per 60 minutes (2.37, third-worst among Caps defensemen with
at least ten games played) ar more than one might want to tolerate with a “puck-moving”
defensemen who does not contribute a lot in the offensive end. So no, we would not be inclined to replace
Johansson or Joly with Jensen.
In goal, the decision is simpler. There is no candidate to replace Al Jensen,
none of the five goalies to dress for the Caps since 2014 having a last name
starting with the letter “J.” Even if
one was to use the dodge of going with a goalie whose first name started with
the letter, the choices would be limited to one – Justin Peters. With a 3-6-1, 3.25, .881 record in 12 games
with the Caps, he would not merit consideration to replace Jensen.
We are left where we started, the 2014 “All-J Team”
remaining intact. It isn’t a bad team,
but it also appears to fail to take a place among the best letter teams for the
Caps. If you were thinking how far such
a team might go, it looks like a playoff team, just not one built for a deep
run.
