Washington Capitals: 2021--2022 By the Tens -- Forwards: Anthony Mantha

Anthony Mantha

“There is no ghost so difficult to lay as the ghost of an injury.”
-- Alexander Smith

It started in March 2017 with a fractured finger.  For Anthony Mantha it was the first step of what has become a frustratingly injury-plagued career that has seen him play in more than 70 games in a season only once in his career.  The finger injury was followed by groin, hand, “lower body,” knee, lung, and finally a shoulder injury from which he missed 45 games with the Washington Capitals in the 2021-2022 season.  What makes it so frustrating is captured by the description of his assets at TSN.ca:

"Is a natural goal-scoring talent with great size and instincts for putting the biscuit in the basket. For a big winger, he skates very well, too. Displays great hand/eye coordination. Can play either wing position.”   

His absence was a hole the Caps found difficult to fill this season.

Fearless’ Take… When he was in the lineup, Mantha was productive.  His 0.62 points per game ranked fifth among forwards, and it leaves us with the question of whether he might have been even more effective if healthy for more of the season.  He was just 0.05 points per game short of finishing third among forwards, behind only alex Ovechkin (1.17) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (0.99).  He had a plus-7 even strength goal differential in the 37 games in which he played, tied for seventh among forwards and just two goals short of being fourth among forwards.  He had a 53.8 shot-attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 in only 37 games and just over 12 minutes per game at 5-on-5.  It matters that Mantha is in the lineup, at least based on this season’s number. The Caps were 21-9-7 in the 37 games in which he played, earning 66.2 percent of available points.  They were 23-17-5 when he was out of the lineup, earning only 56.7 percent of available points.  And it was not as if he played against a bunch of stiffs in terms of strength of schedule.  Of his 37 games played, he faced playoff teams 21 times.  Mantha on ice was productive and could be a valuable top-six player.

Cheerless’ Take… In the six full seasons Mantha has played in the NHL, he dressed for 343 of 455 scheduled games, 75.4 percent of games played, and that includes playing in all 56 games of the 2020-2021 season, split between Detroit and Washington.  He will be only 28 years old on Opening Night, presumably in his productive prime.   But he has been brittle and needs to rid himself, to extent possible, of the injury bug that has plagued his career.  And yes, cuz, he did dress 21 times against playoff teams this season, but he went 2-6-8, even, against those teams.  He padded those numbers by going 7-8-15, plus-4, against non-playoff teams.

Odd Mantha Fact… Of 25 Capitals playing in at least 15 games, Mantha had the highest percentage of first goals of games of total goals scored (four in 37 games/10.8 percent).

Odd Mantha Fact II… Offensive engagement by Mantha and Caps success went hand-in-hand…7-0-0 when he scored a goal, 12-2-4 when he had a point, 16-4-3 when he had at least two shots on goal.

Odd Mantha Fact III… The Caps did not lose a game in regulation when Mantha skated less than 14 minutes in a game (6-0-3).

Game to Remember… April 16^th at Montreal.  The Caps headed to Montreal for a mid-April matchup after having been pasted in Toronto by the Maple Leafs, 7-3, two nights earlier. That loss ended a four-game winning streak capped with a 9-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.  It might have left Caps fans wondering which team would show up against the Canadiens.  Anthony Mantha would have a say in answering that question.  He helped open the scoring for the Caps, assisting on a Nic Dowd goal 12:23 into the first period to put the Caps out in front first.  Montreal tied the game less than two minutes into the second period, but then Mantha took over.  With the teams skating 4-on-4, owing to coincidental penalties to Nicklas Backstrom and Josh Anderson, Dmitry Orlov circled out from behind his own net and sent a long pass up ice to Lars Eller just outside the Montreal blue line. His bump pass found a streaking Mantha, who skated around a Montreal defender along the right wing wall and barreled in on goalie Sam Montembeault.  He fired from the right wing circle, and Montembeault managed to slow the puck down.  It snuck past him and crawled to the goal line, but before he could smother the puck with his catching glove, Mantha swooped in and batted it into the back of the net at the 8:03 mark to give the Caps a lead they would not relinquish. 

Mantha put the Caps up a pair of goals just 34 seconds later.  With the teams still skating 4-on-4, Mantha started the play by poking the puck off the stick of Cole Caufield at the Caps’ blue line.  The puck slid up to Eller, who fed Mantha hustling back into the play.  He broke in alone on Montembeault and snapped a shot that beat the goalie cleanly under his glove to make it 3-1, Caps, 8:37 into the period.   

In the third period, Mantha would close out his big night with an assist on an Orlov goal that put the Caps up, 6-3, on their way to an 8-4 win.  It was Mantha’s sixth career game with four or more points and his first with Washington after recording his first five with the Detroit Red Wings.

Game to Forget… November 4^th at Florida.  After posting a pair of goals and five points in his first nine games of the season, Mantha looked poised to be a reliable contributor for the Caps in his first full season with the club after arriving from Detroit.  He added to his point total with an assist on a Daniel Sprong goal 43 seconds into the second period to cut a 2-0 Panther lead in half. However, less than six minutes later his evening would end, suffering what was described at the time as an “upper body injury” but one that would cost him and the Caps 45 games after shoulder surgery.  He did go 7-10-17 in 27 games after his return, which only made one wonder what his season might have been without having so much of it missed to injury.

Postseason… Mantha did not record a goal in any of the six games in the first round loss to Florida, but he did post four assists, three of them in the Caps’ two wins and one in the overtime loss that ended the Caps’ season.  It was his second trip to the postseason of his career, both with the Caps.  However, in 11 games over those two postseasons, he has yet to score a goal (0-6-6) on 31 shots.

Looking Ahead… Mantha has two more seasons on a contract with a $5.7 million cap hit.  A durable player with as much productivity as Mantha has displayed on a per-82 game basis with the Caps to date (a 21-29-50, plus-6, pace pr 82 games) is not necessarily a bargain, but it is less so for a player whose games missed history is considered. Perhaps if he could shake the injury bug once and for all, his production will improve sufficiently to make him a bargain and worthy of a contract extension down the road.

In the end…

Anthony Mantha possesses the rare skill set that combines size, speed, soft hands, and a scorer’s touch that any team would find desirable.  He is, when healthy, a bona fide top-six talent who would appear to have the potential to raise his game another notch or two.  But the key phrase in the preceding sentence is “when healthy.”  For the Caps to compete for a playoff spot, let alone a deep playoff run next season, his ability to avoid that injury bug will be of paramount importance.

Grade: B

Washington Capitals: 2021--2022 By the Tens -- Forwards: Brett Leason

Brett Leason

“Bizarre! That's the only word I can use to describe life sometimes. Just freaking bizarre.”
-- James Patterson

"Big, quality scoring forward with upside."  That succinct statement from TSN.ca describes Brett Leason, who just completed his rookie season with the Washington Capitals.  Those were the qualities that might have put Leason on the Caps’ radar in advance of the 2019 Entry Draft, where he was taken by the Caps with the 56^th overall pick (second round).  After playing parts of three seasons with the Hershey Bears after he was drafted, he moved up to play almost half a season’s worth of games with the big club and staked a claim to being a fixture in the future.

Fearless’ Take… Well, he is the player with size that the Caps seem to covet.  At 6’5”, 218 pounds, he might yet fill out some.  Of the 11 rookies suiting up for the Caps this season, Leason finished tied for fourth in goals scored (three, with Aliaksei Protas) and sixth in points (six).  He was third among the rookies in shots on goal (45), fourth in credited hits (20), third in blocked shots (14), third in takeaways (nine), tied for second in first goals scored (two), and was one of three rookies with an empty net point.  And, he did all of this while averaging a modest 8:57 per game in ice time, least among the 11 rookies.

Cheerless’ Take… Leason’s ice time and team success were only distantly related.  In nine games n which he logged ten or more minutes in ice time, the Caps were just 3-5-1.  They were 6-6-1 in games in which Leason recorded two or more shots on goal.  They were 8-7-1 in games in which he was credited with at least one hit…4-8-1 when he had one or more blocked shots.  It would be hard to find more of a disconnect between a player’s crooked marks on a score sheet and team results.

Odd Leason Fact… Leason had points in five games this season.  The Caps went 1-3-1 in those games. 

Odd Leason Fact II… Leason was the fourth player ever selected by the Caps from Prince Albert in the Western Hockey League.  He is already tied for most goals ever scored by a Prince Albert alumnus for the Caps (three).  He is tied with the fifth player drafted by the Caps from Prince Albert, fellow rookie Aliaksei Protas (taken 91^st overall in the same draft as Leason).

Odd Leason Fact III… Third time was the charm for Leason in the draft. He went unselected in both the 2017 (in which he was the 133^rd-ranked North American skater) and 2018 Entry Drafts (unranked in 2018) before he was taken by the Caps in 2019 (25^th-ranked North American skater).

Game to Remember… November 1^st at Tampa Bay.  For a rookie, it has to be the game in which he scored his first NHL goal.  And, it happened to be consistent with what was, at times, a bizarre season for the rookie.  It came in Tampa in the first game of November after the Caps went undefeated in regulation in October (5-0-3).  It was the first goal of the game against the Lightning, just 73 seconds into the contest.  Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev tried to work the puck out of danger from behind his own net, but he managed only advance it as far as Taylor Raddysh, who was being covered by Nick Jensen pinching in from the right point.  The puck slid free and up to Leason at the point.  He took what looked like a harmless shot from the right-wing boards, but after going between the legs of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Victor Hedman redirected the puck past his own goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Leason became the 397^th player in Caps history to score a goal.  The bizarre part?  It was the first of only ten shifts for Leason for the game in which he compiled a team low 5:58 in ice time, only 32 seconds of which – one shift – were recorded in the third period.  And, the Caps lost, 3-2, their first loss in regulation of the season.

Game to Forget… January 24^th vs. Vegas.  A late January game in Washington against the Vegas Golden Knights added a chapter to the sometimes bizarre season Brett Leason had.  In six games leading up to this matchup, the Caps alternated wins and losses.  Leason played in five of them after he was activated from the taxi squad on January 13th, going scoreless with an even rating while averaging 10:42 in ice time.  He would get less than half of that ice time in this contest and did not skate a shift in the third period.  Unsurprisingly, his score sheet line was largely blank.  One shot attempt (shot on goal), one takeaway, and one blocked shot in 5:02 in ice time spread over seven shifts.  It would be in the only game all season in which the Caps were shut out, 1-0, extending their run of alternating wins and losses

Postseason… Leason dressed for one playoff game, Game 2 in the opening round loss to Florida.  No shot attempts, no points, one credited hit, and a minus-1 rating in 8:17 in ice time.  A taste of what the second season looks like.

Looking Ahead… Leason completed his entry level contract in 2021-2022 season and is a restricted free agent without arbitration eligibility.  Whether he gets an offer from the Caps greater than that of his $842,500 cap hit in his entry level deal might depend as much on the potential he exhibited in Canadian junior hockey as his 36-game stint with the Caps this season.  In 2018-2019, Leason went 36-53-89, plus-55, in 55 regular season games with Western Hockey League champion Prince Albert, more than doubling his goal total from the previous season (15) and almost three times the point total he recorded (32).

In the End…

While he might never reach the level of production he had in his final year in juniors in the NHL, if he can raise his offensive game, he could help ease the transition to the next generation of Capitals and become a part of the new core cadre of players.  At any rate, his rookie season might be remembered as one of the more unconventional in recent Caps history.

Grade: B

Washington Capitals: 2021--2022 By the Tens -- Forwards: Evgeny Kuznetsov

Evgeny Kuznetsov

“Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise proper deliberation, plan carefully before making a move, and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance.” 

-- Horace

When the 2020-2021 season ended for the Caps, the question was less “if” than it was “when” center Evgeny Kuznetsov would be traded, right down to possible destinations.  We have to admit to being in the “when” camp back then.  That Kuznetsov was not traded is a lesson in why media (and bloggers) are not general managers of hockey teams.  After a disappointing season that extended a career arc of diminishing production since his star turn in the 2018 playoffs, Kuznetsov came into the 2021-2022 season appearing rejuvenated and committed to producing at a high level consistently. 

Fearless’ Take… 24 goals, most since he had 27 in 2017-2018.  54 assists, most since he had 56 in 2017-2018.  78 points, most since he had 83 in 2017-2018.  Eight power play goals, tying a career high.  19 power play assists, most since he had 23 in 2017-2018.  27 power play points, most since he had 30 in 2017-2018.  More than 20 minutes of ice time per night (20:17), most of his career.  This season, he was tied for second in goals (24, with Tom Wilson), second in points (78), second in power play points (27), first in shorthanded points (five), second among forwards in average ice time (20:17).  Only forward to average more than three minutes per game on power plays (3:44) and more than a minute per game killing penalties (1:07).  Led team in overtime ice time per overtime game (1:44). Only Capital to be called upon to take a turn in every Gimmick game played by the Caps (eight).  While his offensive numbers did not quite measure up to his 2017-2018 season, he might have displayed a more well-rounded game this season than in that one.

Cheerless’ Take… Kuznetsov was not a particularly effective possession player.  Despite a 73.9 percent offensive zone starts share at 5-on-5, second-highest on the team, his shot attempts-on ice percentage at 5-on-5 was relatively weak (49.7).  His ice time did not track much with Caps success, the team going 21-14-10 when he logged at least 20 minutes, 22-11-1 when he was under 20 minutes. 28-15-6 15-10-5.  And then there were those faceoffs.  There were 167 players taking at least 250 draws this season.  Kuznetsov finished 149^th in winning percentage (43.5).

Odd Kuznetsov Fact… Only two forwards in the league (Jonathan Huberdeau and Adam Lowry) were on ice for most shorthanded points for than Kuznetsov (six).

Odd Kuznetsov Fact II… Kuznetsov had four game-winning goals this season, all of them on home ice.

Odd Kuznetsov Fact III… By now, Kunzetsov’s lack of faceoff success is not news, but while he won ten or more faceoffs in 12 games this season, the Caps were just 6-4-2 in those games.  He lost ten or more draws 25 times, and the Caps went 15-6-4.  

Game to Remember… March 11^th at Vancouver.  When the Caps visited Vancouver in March, they were wrapping up a three-game road trip to Canada’s western provinces. They split the first two games, a 5-4 win in Calgary and a 4-3 overtime loss in Edmonton.  For his part, Evgeny Kuznetsov entered the game against the Canucks with a four-game points streak (1-3-4), the Caps going 3-0-1 in those games.  Kuznetsov opened the scoring in the game’s sixth minute.  Kuznetsov started the scoring sequence when he took a pass from T.J. Oshie at the Vancouver blue line, skated through the left wing circle, and fired a shot that went wide into the right wing corner.  Nick Jensen recovered the puck along the right wing wall and sent the puck back around the end boards.  The puck struck a stanchion behind the Canucks’ net and popped out in front where Kuznetsov was skating through the low slot.  He batted the puck out of mid-air past goalie Thatcher Demko on the stick side, and the Caps had a 1-0 lead 5:34 into the game.  Less than a minute later, Kuznetsov and the Caps had their second goal, this one on a power play.  He took a slingshot pass from John Carlson in his own end and skated the puck to the Vancouver blue line, where he slid it to Carlson at the right point.  Carlson fed Alex Ovechkin for a one-timer from the left wing circle that Demko stopped, but could not control.  Kuznetsov was waiting at the top of the crease, and as he was being whacked by defenseman Tyler Myers, he pushed the puck the last couple of feet past Demko and into the back of the net to make it 2-0, Caps, at the 6:17 mark.  At the time, it was a bit of a mixed blessing, since Kuznetsov’s guiding the puck the last couple of feet denied what might have been Ovechkin’s 767^th career goal, which would have broken a tie with Jaromir Jagr for third-place all time in career goals.

The Canucks came back, however, and took a 3-2 lead early in the third period.  The Caps drew even on another power play.  Carlson, Ovechkin, and Kuznetsov were engaged in a three-man passing drill at the perimeter of the offensive zone when Ovechkin snapped a shot that Demko once more stopped but failed to control. A scramble in front of Demko ensued, and the puck squirted out to his left.  Kuznetsov darted in from the right wing wall to jump on the loose puck, but his he whiffed on his first attempt to convert.  He did not miss on his second, using his superior hand-eye coordination to shoot the puck off Demko’s left pad as he was skating past the goal post, tucking it behind Demko to tie the game and complete his hat trick.  The Caps completed the comeback when Lars Eller scored just 42 seconds into overtime for a 4-3 victory.  For Kuznetsov, it was his second career hat trick and his fifth three-point game of the season.

Game to Forget… February 28^th vs. Toronto.  The Caps closed out February with their first game in DC after a perfect 4-0-0 road trip.  They then laid an egg against the Maple Leafs on home ice.  The Leafs and Caps exchanged goals to start the game, but after the Caps tied it on a Conor Sheary goal 16:23 into the period, Toronto scored twice in a span of 1:09, the latter goal coming with just 1.6 seconds left in the period to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.  The Caps came back, though, scoring once in the second period and again, on a shorthanded goal by Tom Wilson 1:44 into the third period.  The Leafs would score late in a period again, though, taking the lead on a Rasmus Sandin goal with 3:23 left in regulation.  The Leafs added an empty net goal for a 5-3 win.  Kuznetsov had a brutal game, taking a pair of minor penalties, winning just five of 14 faceoffs, and going minus-4 for the only time in the regular season and the fourth time in his career he did so, his first time on home ice.

Postseason… Kuznetsov’s postseason had an uneven quality to it.  He posted two goals in six games after going without one in three games in last year’s playoffs.  His three even strength points tied for second on the team (Nicklas Backstrom had four), and his 16 shots on goal were tied for third on the team.  On the other hand, he had a minus-3 goal differential at even strength, and those three even strength points for which he was on ice at even strength were the only even strength points for which he was on the ice in the series against Florida.  He also had seven giveaways to two takeaways, and his 42. 7 faceoff winning percentage ranks 58^th of 65 players taking at least 50 draws.

Looking Ahead… Kuznetsov has three years remaining on his contract that carries a $7.8 million annual cap hit. At the level of production he provided this season, that might be a bit of a bargain.  Of 12 centers with cap hits between $7.0 and $8.5 million this past season, Kuznetsov finished sixth in goals, second in assists, fourth in points, and second in average ice time (source: capfriendly.com)  But that’s the issue, will Kuznetsov continue producing at his 2021-2022 level, or was this season a one-off in what has been a disappointing trend in production? 

In the End…

By appearances, Kuznetsov had more focus and determination, and he just seemed happier playing hockey this season.  Having reached his 30^th birthday and about to embark on his tenth NHL season in 2022-2023, he sits squarely in what should be the prime of his career.  For the Caps to keep that competitive window open just a bit longer, he is going to have to build off this year’s effort and play like a very talented player in his prime.

Grade: A-