Washington Capitals: 2021-2022 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Matt Irwin

Matt Irwin

“It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.”
-- Elizabeth Taylor

 

That quote might be true, but a professional athlete doesn’t have to like it.  In fact, he or she probably chafes at the whole idea of waiting for an opportunity.  But is a measure of one’s professionalism to wait and be ready when that opportunity presents itself.  Matt Irwin, a veteran of five teams and almost 400 regular season games, was signed as insurance – a depth player to be available in a pinch, able to draw on a wealth of experience and situations faced to give the Caps solid minutes when circumstances dictated.

Fearless’ Take… Irwin is not an especially prolific offensive player (22 goals and 84 points in 383 career regular season games going into this season), not particularly susceptible to being penalized (169 career penalty minutes before this season), and a reasonable effective, but not intimidating physical player (566 credited career hits before this season).  But his role requires none of that.  The trick is for him to step in when needed and contribute to such a degree that the Caps don’t miss a beat if a regular defenseman is out of the lineup.  He was valuable in that role; the Caps were 11-6-0 in the 17 games in which he played, 6-1-0 when he logged at least 14 minutes in ice time.

Cheerless’ Take… Only once in ten NHL seasons did Irwin dress for fewer games than the 17 games he skated for the Caps (two with Boston in 2015-2016).  He has never been an efficient shooter, ranking 171^st in shooting percentatge (3.6 percent) among 215 defensemen appearing in at least 250 games since 2012-2013, when Irwin broke into the NHL.  His 3.5 shooting percentage this season was second worst among Caps defensemen appearing in at least ten games.

Odd Irwin Fact… Irwin was second among Caps defensemen in shots on goal per game (1.71), trailing only John Carlson (2.50).

Odd Irwin Fact II… Irwin led all Caps defensemen in hits per 60 minutes (10.05). Since 2005-2006, among defensemen appearing in more than ten games in a season, only Brook Orpik had a season averaging more for the Caps (10.80 in 2014-2015).

Odd Irwin Fact III… Among Caps defensemen playing in more than one game, Irwin had the best shot attempts-for percentage on ice at 5-on-5 (56.0).

Game to Remember… April 12^th vs Philadelphia.  With the season winding down in its final week, the Caps were finishing strong.  In 17 games leading up to their matchup with the Flyers, they were 12-4-1.  When they took the ice against Philadelphia, they were looking to extend a home winning streak in regulation to three games, which would be their longest streak of home wins in regulation since late November, then they won four in a row in regulation on home ice.

The Caps got out to a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes and led 5-1 after 40 minutes.  Five different Caps had goals, and 12 different Caps had points through two periods.  Matt Irwin was not among them.  That matter was rectified in the fourth minute. Johan Larsson took a pass from Justin Schultz at the Flyer blue line. Larsson fed the puck cross ice to Schultz at the right point, and Schultz passed the puck along to Irwin just inside the blue line.  Irwin’ slap shot from distance eluded several players, including goalie Martin Jones, who was well-screened on the play, the puck sailing past his blocker to make it 6-1, Caps.  After Lars Eller scored less than three minutes later to make it 7-1, Irwin notched his second point of the game when he assisted on a goal by Garnet Hathaway. The Caps went on to win, 9-2, Irwin earning the game’s third star off his second two-point game of the season.

Game to Forget… March 22^nd vs. St. Louis.  Injuries often play havoc with a lineup.  Sometimes, a team will depart from the usual 12 forward/six defenseman complement to add a defenseman while subtracting a forward who might be out with an injury.  This is what faced the Caps in a late-March game against the Blues.  T.J. Oshie was out with a lower-body injury, and the Caps resorted to dressing seven defensemen.  Matt Irwin was that seventh defenseman.  Not that it mattered.  A combination of factors, perhaps not wanting to upset the pairs configuration coupled with the Caps falling behind in the second period, led to Irwin getting no ice time in the game’s first 59 minutes.  That’s right, the first 50 minutes.  He skated one shift – the last one of the game as it turned out, getting all of 29 seconds of ice time for the game.  By almost four minutes, it was the lowest amount of ice time of his career. 

Postseason… Irwin did not dress for the Caps in the postseason.

Looking Ahead… Irwin’s one-year/$750,000 deal with the Caps expired with the end of the 2021-2022 season.  He has been a well-traveled sort, the Caps being his sixth team in a ten-season career.  With the possibility of Alex Alexeyev and perhaps Lucas Johansen (a restricted free agent with arbitration rights) moving up the defenseman depth chart, It is hard to think that there won’t be a seventh team on which he plays next season.

In the End… Matt Irwin is not what one would call an elite defenseman, but he is a solid pro who plays the sort of low-risk game that does not put his team in jeopardy.  The trouble is, he does appear to have a limited skill set that makes him an asset that moves around.  He will be 35 years old less than two months into next season, which does not make him a more attractive possibility.  But he is a professional through and through, and the team that signs him will get a solid, honest effort that can fill holes effectively, even if his days as a regular defenseman might be nearing an end.

Grade: B

Washington Capitals: 2021-2022 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Martin Fehervary

Martin Fehervary

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
― Samuel Johnson

“The big…defenseman can skate, play physical, produce offense, and has a hard shot.” 

 "[He] is an immensely talented defenseman and incredibly mature. He has both supreme confidence in his abilities and the self-awareness to know he is not a finished product.” 

“He has a real calmness to his game in how he moves the puck. It’s that poise with the puck and his IQ that leads me to think he has a chance to be a top-four defenseman…” 

Sounds like a defenseman the Washington Capitals might take as their first pick in the 2018 Entry Draft.  The thing is, the Caps did take a defenseman with their first pick in that draft, but with the 31^st overall pick they selected Alex Alexeyev, not Martin Fehervary, who was taken with the Caps’ second pick in that draft, in the second round (46^th overall) after 20 other defensemen had been selected.  But while Alexeyev dealt with some setbacks that affected his development timeline, Fehervary made steady progress to become a full-time player and the team leader in games played in 2021-2022.  He likely stands as the most likely under-25 player to make an impact in the short term for the Capitals.

Fearless’ Take… Fehervary acquitted himself quite well among his fellow rookie defensemen in the NHL this season.  Third in games played (79), first in goals (eight), tied for 11^th in assists (nine), tied for sixth in points (17), tied for second in plus-minus rating (plus-15), fourth in shots on goal (96), first in credited hits (251), sixth in blocked shots (117), tied for tenth in takeaways (14), ninth in ice time per game (19:39; minimum: 20 games), fifth in shorthanded ice time per game (1:47; minimum: 20 games).  And ice time didn’t seem to be much of a problem.  The Caps were 21-8-2 when he skated at least 20 minutes.  And, the Caps did not lose a game in regulation in which he scored a goal (7-0-1).

Cheerless’ Take… While Feherary’s overall numbers are pretty good, especially when compared to other rookie defensemen, dig deeper, and there were consistency issues on the offensive side of the puck. In his first 16 games, he was 2-3-5, plus-2.  That was followed by a 27-game stretch over which he mustered one point (a goal), although he was a plus-14.  Then a three-game points streak followed by a 20-game streak going 2-1-3, minus-5.  He finished the season 2-3-5, plus-2, over his last 13 games.  At the other end, in 30 games from February 24^th to the end of the regular season, he was on ice for 31 goals at even strength.  Only his frequent partner, John Carlson, was on for more (32), and Fehervary’s minus-5 goal differential at even strength was tied for worst among defenseman over that run (with Trevor van Riemsdyk).

Odd Fehervary Fact… Only John Carlson and Gord Lane appeared in more games as a rookie (82 and 80, respectively) than did Fehervary (79, tied with Kevin Hatcher).

Odd Fehervary Fact II… In one-plus seasons in the NHL, Fehervary already ranks tenth in career goals scored by a Slovakian defenseman (eight, tied with former Capital Ivan Majesky and Richard Lintner), 14^th in points (18), sixth in plus-minus rating (plus-13), and seventh in ice time per game (19:24).

Odd Fehervary Fact III… Fehervary and Lane are the only two rookie defensemen in Caps history to record two shorthanded points in their rookie season.  Fehervary is the only one to do it while scoring a shorthanded goal.

Game to Remember… October 23^rd vs. Calgary.  The Caps took the ice for their fifth game of the season as a team already exhibiting something of a split personality.  They were 3-0-1 in their first four games, scoring 15 goals in their three wins and only one in an overtime loss to Tampa Bay.  They would face a Calgary Flames team that showed game to game improvement in their scoring defense, allowing five goals in a 5-2 loss to Edmonton in their season opener, three in a 3-2 overtime loss to Anaheim, and then a clean sheet in a 3-0 shutout of Detroit before heading to Washington.

Calgary went out to a 3-0 lead in the first 20 minutes, but the Caps got one back less than three minutes into the second period when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored shorthanded.  The Caps got closer five minutes later.  Kuznetsov took the puck off a Calgary stick and slid it ahead to Alex Ovechkin exiting the defensive zone.  Ovechkin fed Fehervary to his right, and Fehervary relayed it ahead to Tom Wilson heading down the right wing.  Wilson skated into the offensive zone, and from the right wing wall left the puck for Fehervary trailing the play.  Seeing an open lane, Fehervary angled into the right wing circle and from the faceoff dot snapped a shot that beat goalie Dan Vladar past the blocker on the far side, his first NHL goal getting the Caps within a goal.  Ovechkin tied the game late in the second period, and after a scoreless third period, the teams went to overtime.  There, Calgary earned the extra standings point on an Elias Lindholm goal, but the Caps did manage a comeback from an early hole to earn a point, thanks in part to Fehervary’s first NHL goal.

Game to Forget… December 10^th vs. Pittsburgh.  There are some games that are worthy of forgetting in a figurative sense, but sometimes there are those that might be forgotten in a literal sense.  Such might have been the case for Martin Fehervary in a game against the Penguins in December.  Pittsburgh had a 2-0 lead as the game was reaching the mid-way point when the Caps applied pressure in the Penguins’ end.  Evgeny Kuznetsov, camped at the right point, tried to feed the puck across to Fehervary at the left point, but the pass was muffled by the stick of Teddy Blueger. Fehervary stepped forward to corral the puck, and it was just enough time for Brock McGinn to step up and level Fehervary with a head shot as Fehervary was sending the puck ahead to T.J. Oshie.  The hit, which was not penalized, ended Fehervary’s evening 9:17 into the period.  He did come back the following game and scored a goal in the Caps’ 3-2 Gimmick win over Buffalo.

Postseason… The best that might be said for Fehervary’s postseason is that he got six games worth of experience under his belt.  Nevertheless, 0-0-0, minus-7, on ice for 11 even strength goals against (tied with John Carlson for most on the team), a minus-7 goal differential at evens (worst on the team).  It was not a postseason for the scrapbook.

Looking Ahead… Fehervary was the second-youngest defenseman to skate for the Caps this season (Alex Alexeyev, six weeks younger, skated in one game).  He might be considered, at least for the moment, a defenseman who will figure prominently in the Caps’ personnel thinking as the team moves to mid-decade, and defensemen such as John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, and Nick Jensen (assuming all are still with the club) reach their mid-30’s.  If he is to become a cornerstone on defense, his consistency and attention to detail in his own end will need some improvement.

In the End…

Fehervary seemed to hit a wall at around the 50-game mark.  This should not have been a total surprise, the 62 games he played in 2019-2020, split between Hershey (56 games) and Washington (six games), being the only time in his career – amateur or professional – he topped 50 games played in a season.  But what lingers from this season is a comment made by Capitals Assistant General Manager Ross Mahoney about Fehervary’s approach:

“I can’t recall watching a game where I thought Martin’s effort wasn’t where it should be — it was always unbelievable.” 

Effort plus experience could make for a solid player who had a very good rookie season upon which to build.

Grade: B

Washington Capitals: 2021-2022 By the Tens -- Defensemen: John Carlson

John Carlson

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
-- Aristotle

If John Carlson is not the best offensive defenseman of his generation, he is on a short list.  The flip side of that is that if he is not the most underappreciated defenseman of his generation – even among a sizable number of Washington Capitals fans – he is on a short list. Since he became a full-time player for the Caps in 2010-2011, Carlson ranks sixth in goals scored (131, tied with Mark Giordano), second in assists (456), third in points (587), 12^th in power play goals scored (37, tied with Alex Pietrangelo), fifth in power play points (217), fifth in game-winning goals (27, tied with Pietrangelo), fourth in goals for on-ice at even strength (823), fifth in goal differential on-ice at even strength (plus-118), sixth in points per 60 minutes (1.23; minimum: 200 games).  Only Erik Karlsson has more 70-point seasons in that span (four) than Carlson (three).  But he also ranks fourth in blocked shots (1,653) and fourth in takeaways (501).  He is one of 20 defensemen over that period who, in at least 200 games, averaged more than two minutes per game on power plays and penalty kills.

Fearless’ Take… In a run of seasons of offensive dominance by Carlson, he had a career year in goals in 2021-2022 (17), his third-highest assist total for a season (54), his second highest point total (71, his third 70-point season in four years), a career high in power play goals (seven), the most efficient shooting season of his career (8.7 percent), doubled his career best in empty net points (10; he had five in 2019-2020),  He was called upon three time in the Gimmick, scoring the third shootout goal of his career and second game-deciding Gimmick goal.

Cheerless’ Take... Carlson is a minutes eater, but that is not necessarily a good thing.  In 28 games in which he logged 24:30 or more, the Caps were 12-10-6.  Being physical was not necessarily a good thing, either.  The Caps were 10-9-3 in 22 games in which he was credited with two or more hits.  He was on ice for 68 even strength goals against, most among defensemen and second-most on the team.

Odd Carlson Fact… Since 2016-2017, four defensemen have posted at least 350 points – Victor Hedman (374), Carlson (365), Brent Burns (354), and Roman Josi (352).  Three of them have won a Norris Trophy.  We will leave to you to guess who is the odd man out.

Odd Carlson Fact II… Since 2016-2017, two defensemen have posted at least 75 goals, 350 points, a plus-minus of plus-40 or better, and at least 140 power play points.  Victor Hedman and John Carlson, one a Norris winner, the other not.

Odd Carlson Fact III… With 132 career goals, Carlson is the all-time leader among defensemen born in Massachusetts (Natick) in career goals scored; he is second in career points (593) to Keith Yandle (619); he is second in plus-minus (plus-100) to…checks notes… Mike Milbury (plus-175, the all-time leader among all skaters born in Massachusetts).

Game to Remember… December 6^th vs. Anaheim.  John Carlson officially had two game-winning goals in the 2021-2022 season.  There was, however, one that did not show up on the league statistical tables.  When the Anaheim Ducks came to Washington in early December, they were facing a Caps team that was on a decent run of success, going 10-2-2 over their previous 14 games.  That last “2” in their record extended a run of extra time misery the Caps experienced over the season to that point, losing all six games in which they went past regulation.

After the Ducks scored three goals in the second period to take a 3-2 lead into the final frame, the Caps look dead as a doornail when the game went into the final minute of the third period.  But with their net emptied in the final minute, the Caps applied forechecking pressure, courtesy of Tom Wilson, who pestered Josh Manson into a ghastly turnover, an attempted pass through the middle that was intercepted by Alex Ovechkin in the left wing circle.  Ovechkin darted to the net, but instead of shooting from the low slot, nudged a pass back to Carlson between the hash marks.  Carlson’s initial drive was stopped by goalie John Gibson, but Gibson could not control the rebound.  Carlson jumped on the loose puck in the top of the crease and swatted it past the fallen Gibson to tie the game with 23 seconds left in regulation.  After a scoreless five-minute overtime, the teams went to the freestyle competition.  In four rounds of the extra-extra session, Troy Terry and Rickard Rakell scored for Anaheim, while Daniel Sprong and Ovechkin scored for the Caps, sending the matter into a fifth round.  Sonny Milano lifted a backhand high and wide over goalie Ilya Samsonov, and the Caps went to Carlson in the bottom of the round with the game on his stick.  Carlson picked up the puck and the center dot and curled to his left.  Cutting in from the left wing circle, he hesitated an instant to get Gibson to commit, then snapped a shot between his pads for the game-deciding goal in a 4-3 win, the Caps’ first extra time win of the season.

Game to Forget… March 28^th vs. Carolina.  When the Caps beat the Hurricanes, 4-0, to begin their March schedule, it set them off on a 9-2-1 run that would include another win over Carolina, a 4-3 Gimmick win in Raleigh on March 18^th.  When the Hurricanes arrived in Washington to close the March schedule, they were looking to sweep the four-game season series over the Hurricanes.  Carolina had other things in mind.  The Hurricanes scored twice five minutes apart early in the first period to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.  The Caps halved the lead on a Tom Wilson goal in the seventh minute of the second period, but any momentum that goal might have generated was snuffed out when, less than two minutes later, the Hurricanes scored a shorthanded goal to make it 3-1.  Carlson was not on ice for that goal, but he was for four others in Carolina’s 6-1 win.  It was a dismal game for Carlson, who finished the game without a shot attempt and a season-worst minus-4 rating.  It might be worth noting that while this game was utterly forgettable, Carlson picked himself up and went 6-10-16, plus-4, in his last 14 games of the regular season, second among the league’s defensemen in goals and points over that stretch.

Postseason… It was a mixed bag for Carlson in the postseason.  He did go 1-4-5 in the six-game first round series against Florida, one of three Caps defensemen to record a goal (Trevor van Riemsdyk and Justin Schultz being the others) and leading the Caps’ defense in points.  But no skater for the Caps was on ice for more even strength goals against (11, tied with partner Martin Fehervary), and he was a third-worst minus-5 in even strength on ice goal differential.  The goal he scored in he Caps’ 6-1 Game 3 win over the Panthers was his first postseason goal since he scored one in the Caps’ 6-2 Game 4 win over the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup final in 2018, breaking a 20-game streak in the postseason without a goal.

Looking Ahead… Absent divine intervention, Carlson, who has to be considered a “core” player at this point of his career, will carry his $8.0 million salary cap hit through the 2025-2026 season with the Caps.  It is worth noting that he is the only defenseman on the parent roster signed past this coming season.  If Caps fans (well some of them) are advocating he be traded, trading productive players one of fans’ favorite pastimes, it seems, don’t count on it.  You don’t generally trade 70-point defensemen in their prime when you have no other defenseman with any significant NHL experience signed after this coming season.

In the End… Carlson might not be “Langwayesque” when it comes to defending in his end of the ice, but it often seems he suffers from “Michael Jordan Syndrome”… the guy in the ESPN highlight getting dunked on.  He often seems to be in frame when an opponent scores.  His defense might have suffered some this season from being partnered with a rookie – Martin Fehervary – for much of the season.  Nevertheless, he remains one of, if hot the elite offensive defensemen in the league, although Cale Makar in Colorado seems poised to eclipse, if he hasn’t already, the field of defensemen in the NHL. 

Grade: B+