“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
-- George Eliot
In his first four seasons in the NHL Joel Ward was one of a class of hockey player who toils largely anonymously, so far as professional athletes go. He was the player who might chip in an occasional goal or two, but was called upon more often to do the heavy lifting in the corners and along the walls, in the hard work areas of an NHL hockey rink, freeing pucks for teammates to carry to the net.
Then Ward had his turn in the spotlight, scoring seven goals
in 12 post season games for the Nashville Predators in the 2011 post
season. It was just the ticket for a
player entering unrestricted free agency.
It would be the Washington Capitals that offered Ward a contract to his
liking, a four year deal, and Ward joined the team bringing the hope that he
could extend his 2011 playoff performance into four years of hard-nosed,
opportunistic effort.
Two years later, Ward had 14 goals in 112 regular season
games and two goals in 21 post-season games, one of them rather memorable. Still, it might not have been quite what Ward
or fans had in mind when he arrived in Washington.
That changed in 2013-2014.
One of the things that plagued Ward in his first two seasons in
Washington was his inability to sustain good starts to seasons. He got out of the gate with a solid effort
this past season, going 3-3-6 in his first ten-game segment and 6-1-7 in his
second segment. He slowed down a bit in
his third segment (0-4-4), but picked up in the fourth (3-3-6) and sustained
that level of effort over the remainder of the season to finish with career
highs in goals (24), assists (25), points (49), power play goals (6), power
play assists (4) shorthanded goals (2, tied with his total in 2008-2009), game-winning
goals (4, tied with his total from 2010-2011), and shooting percentage (18.0
percent).
Ward’s performance was the embodiment of the importance of
secondary scoring. In 21 games in which
he recorded a goal the Caps were 13-3-5; they were 21-10-7 in 38 games in which
he recorded a point. He was part of what
was the most consistently effective line for the Caps this season with Eric
Fehr and Jason Chimera.
Ward was an especially effective teammate. Consider the two forwards with whom he spent most
of his 5-on-5 ice time: Jason Chimera (84.3 percent of Ward’s 5-on-5 ice time)
and Eric Fehr (36.5 percent). When
paired with Ward, Chimera had a goals-for percentage of 53.8 percent, Fehr had
a goals-for percent of 53.6. When apart
from Ward those percentages dropped to 41.7 percent for Chimera and 45.2
percent for Fehr. However, Ward carried
his 50-plus goals-for percent with him when he was apart from Chimera (57.1)
and Fehr (54.2).
Fearless’ Take… Of 201 forwards recording at least 100 power
play minutes this season, Joel Ward had the ninth best shooting percentage
(27.3 percent). Ward had six goals on 22
shots in 142 minutes. He was very
economical in his use of power play time as well. He had one power play goal per 23.8 minutes
of power play time, 28th best in the league among those 201
forwards.
Cheerless’ Take… Sometimes it is better to be lucky than
good. Not to say Joel Ward wasn’t good,
but let’s not get too carried away. For
instance, among Capital forwards playing in at least 10 games Joel Ward had the
second lowest offensive zone start shares at 5-on-5 (44.8 percent, to Jason
Chimera’s 43.8 percent). Despite the
burden of low offensive zone start frequency he had the highest PDO among
forwards playing at least 20 games with the Caps (102.7). That number was more the product of on-ice
shooting percentage (10.3 percent, tops among that set of forwards) than on-ice
save percentage (92.4 percent, seventh among those forwards). That 10.3 percent on-ice shooting percentage
was itself largely a product of Ward’s own shooting percentage at 5-on-5 – 14.7
percent, best among those forwards and 20th of 292 forwards playing
in at least 75 percent of their team’s games.
Makes one wonder if Ward’s season wasn’t puck-lucky as much as plucky.
Odd Ward Fact… In six season coming into the 2013-2014
campaign Joel Ward had two career four-game point streaks. In the 2013-2014 season he had three such
streaks, all of them coming in the 2014 portion of the season.
Game to Remember… November 1st versus
Philadelphia. With the Capitals heading
to Philadelphia to face the Flyers and Alex Ovechkin being held out of the
lineup with an upper-body injury sustained against the Vancouver Canucks,
someone had to step up in a big way for the Caps. On a night that was all Caps, a lot of guys
did, but none stepped up higher than Joel Ward.
With the Caps holding a 1-0 lead early in the second period, Ward picked
up a loose puck behind the Flyers’ net.
Skating the puck around into the corner to the right of goalie Steve
Mason, Brayden Schenn tried to cut Ward off.
Ward spun away leaving Schenn defending air. Ward walked out from behind
the net and tried to stuff the puck under Mason. The first whack didn’t work, but the second
one did to put the Caps up, 2-0.
Ward added a goal late in the second period when he
completed a nifty passing sequence starting with Jason Chimera peeling the puck
from the left wing wall and backhanding it to Mikhail Grabovski in the left
wing circle. Grabovski backhanded a pass
to Ward, and Ward snapped a wrist shot off the far post and in for his second
of the game, giving the Caps a 5-0 lead.
On a power play in the third period Ward completed his first career hat
trick when he converted another backhand pass from Chimera, taking the pass at
the top of the crease and snapping it past relief goalie Ray Emery to cap the
scoring in a 7-0 Capitals win. As
impressive as the hat trick was, Ward achieved it (two goals at even strength)
despite an offensive zone start share of 20.0 percent. His Corsi-for percentage was 66.7 percent at
5-on-5. It was a solid night all around.
Game to Forget… April 4th versus New Jersey. With the Capitals’ playoff hopes hanging by a
thread, the Caps went to New Jersey hoping to get a foothold for one last push
to make the post-season. It ended up
being nothing but frustration for Joel Ward.
In what would be a tightly-played game Ward would record his
third-lowest amount of ice time for the season (13:12). Part of the reason for that was that he took
three minor penalties, his only game of the season in which he took more than
one penalty. As it turned out he did not
record a shot on goal in those 13 minutes (including 1:35 in power play ice
time), and the Caps lost, 2-1.
In the end…
There were far more high points than lows in the play of
Joel Ward this season. It was not the
case of a player setting career bests in multiple categories from low
baselines. Ward was part of – and arguably the most important part – of what
was on more nights than not, it seemed, the Caps most effective forward
line. He was a critical ingredient on a
line that might have been more than the sum of its parts, something that could
not be said for the rest of the team in the 2013-2014 season.
Grade: A
Photo: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images North America
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