“Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a
warrior.”
-- Carl von Clausewitz
When T.J. Oshie finished the season with 25 goals in the
2018-2019 season, it was the third time in four seasons in Washington that he
reached the 25-goal mark. Only eight players in the history of the franchise have done it more times.
It is a quite different experience than Oshie had in seven years with the St.
Louis Blues to start his NHL career, over which he only topped 20 goals once
(21 in 2013-2014). Much of it is a
product of much greater efficiency. Over
those four seasons, only two players among the 218 with at least 500 shots on
goal have a better shooting percentage than Oshie (17.1) – Mark Schiefele
(18.0) and Brayden Point (17.2).
Oshie’s efficiency in 2018-2019 was right in line with his
numbers over his career as a Capital, his 17.5 percent mark ranking 12th
among the 258 players recording at least 125 shots on goal. He certainly came out of the gate fast,
posting nine goals on 40 shots over his first 18 games (22.5 percent). But then he was slammed to the ice in the
late stages of regulation by Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey (the whistle was never
blown, and Oshie was still on the ice when the Jets scored into an empty net to
secure a 3-1 win):
Oshie missed 11 games, but the Caps picked up the slack in
his absence, going 9-2-0 over that stretch.
He was slow to get back to a more familiar level of production on his
return, going just 2-0-2, even, over his first dozen games back in the lineup.
At that point, he had perhaps his best run of games all season. From January 8th through March 1st,
a span of 24 games, Oshie went 10-16-26 and had nine multi-point games. Oddly enough, the Caps were just 12-9-3 over
those games. He did taper off a bit late
but still went 4-8-12, plus-2, in his last 15 games.
Fearless’ Take… Oshie’s goal scoring was a critical
ingredient to the Caps’ success this season.
The team lost only once in regulation when he scored a goal (January 15th
in a 7-2 loss in Nashville to the Predators) and went 16-1-3 in the 20 games
overall. It is part of a larger pattern
with Oshie. In his four years with the
Caps, they are 68-6-9 in the 83 games in which he scored a goal.
Cheerless’ Take… That T.J. Oshie is one of the toughest
sonuvaguns in the NHL is beyond question.
But what that means is that there is the risk of injury. In four years with the Caps he has missed 37
games and another three in the postseason.
The log from TSN.ca looks like this…
- 3/28/16 - Missed 2 games (illness).
- 12/7/16 - Missed 7 games (upper body injury).
- 1/11/17 - Missed 1 game (upper body injury).
- 1/31/17 - Missed 1 game (personal reasons).
- 3/4/17 - Missed 4 games (upper body injury).
- 12/19/17 - Missed 6 games (upper body injury).
- 4/5/18 - Missed 1 game (lower body injury).
- 4/12/18 - Missed the last regular season game (undisclosed).
- 12/11/18 - Missed 11 games (upper body injury).
- 3/30/19 - Missed 1 game (illness).
- 4/24/19 - Missed the last 3 playoff games (fractured right clavicle)
It is hard to find fault with Oshie’s effort or his
production. But having just wrapped up
his age 32 season with recording for the second time fewer than 70 games in a
season, was this season a glimpse of things to come or just misfortune?
Odd Oshie Fact… An active Oshie
meant good things generally for the Caps.
In 27 games in which Oshie recorded at least three shots on goal, the
Caps were 19-4-4. In 27 games in which
he recorded one or no shots, the Caps were just 11-13-3.
Game to Remember… February 14th at San Jose
When the Caps headed west to start their three-game
California swing in mid-February, T.J. Oshie was in a bit of a goal scoring
slump. In 15 games leading up to that
trip, Oshie had 15 points, but only three of them came on goals, and he was a
minus-8 in the process. However, opening
the trip in San Jose against the Sharks might have been the break Oshie was
looking for. In 27 career games against
the Sharks going into this contest he was 7-8-15, five of those goals having
been scored in San Jose. After the
Sharks broke in front just over two minutes into the game, Oshie got the Caps
even just over a minute later when he collected the rebound of an Alex Ovechkin
shot beneath the goal line to the right of goalie Martin Jones and banked a
shot off Jones and in to make it 1-1 3:38 into the period.
The Caps went ahead eight minutes later, Oshie starting the
play by skating a loose puck out of the Caps’ end. Carrying the puck down the right side in
front of the players benches, he fed the puck to Nicklas Backstrom skating down
the middle. Backstrom returned the puck
to Oshie, who crossed the blue line before feeding it across to Jakub
Vrana. From the high slot, Vrana tried
to shovel the puck past Jones, but the shot was blocked in front. Vrana followed up with the rebound and
snapped the puck past Jones at the 11:33 mark to make it 2-1. Ovechkin added to the Caps’ lead four minutes
into the second period, and Oshie put the game away late in the frame. The Caps broke out of their own end on a long
pass from John Carlson to the red line and off the stick of Backstrom. Vrana chipped the puck ahead to Oshie
breaking behind the defense, whereupon Oshie deked Jones and snuck a forehand
past Jones’ left pad to make it 4-1 on the way to a 5-1 win. Oshie’s second goal was his 500th
career point in the NHL and was his third of four three-point games for the
season, two of them coming against the Sharks.
Game to Forget… February
23rd at Buffalo
The trip to Buffalo in late February was one a lot of Caps
might like to forget, but for T.J. Oshie is was especially frustrating. He was on the ice when the Sabres opened the
scoring less than four minutes into the game.
He was on the ice when the Sabres scored a power play goal in the last
minute of the second period to give Buffalo a 3-1 lead at the second
intermission. And after the Caps closed
to within a goal less than five minutes into the third period, he was on the
ice for a Sabre goal less than two minutes later that killed whatever momentum
the Caps were generating. Oshie finished
the context minus-3, tied with Backstrom for team-worst, and went without a
point in 15:20 of ice time.
Postseason… T.J.
Oshie has been an important ingredient in Caps success in the regular season
over his four seasons with the club, but he has been a big contributor in the
postseason as well. Through the first
three games of the opening round series against Carolina, Oshie was 19-26-45 in
52 postseason games with the club, 1-1-2 in three games to open the series. In Game 4, with Carolina nursing a 2-1 lead
late in the contest, he was pushed by Warren Foegele while in pursuit of a
loose puck and fell forward awkwardly into the boards. He fractured his clavicle on the play, ending
his postseason. Carolina went on to win
that game and won Game 6 and 7 in Oshie’s absence to capture the series.
Looking ahead… T.J. Oshie has six years remaining on an
eight-year/$46 million contract that will keep him a Capital through the
2024-2025 season when he will be 38 years old.
One might wonder if that contract will age well, given Oshie’s injury
history. But even with that history, Oshie is one of only 29 players in
franchise history to top 100 goals with the club (tied for 27th
place with Marcus Johansson at 102 goals).
With a slightly better than typical Oshie season he could break into the
top-20 in all time goal scoring for the club, Alan Haworth currently occupying
the 20th spot with 129 goals.
It might be just a matter of keeping him in the lineup.
In the end…
T.J. Oshie has become a fan favorite for his production, but
also his unbridled willingness to go into the hard areas of the ice and do the
dirty work that a lot of skill players might be more inclined to avoid. In his four seasons with the Caps, he is
third among the team’s forwards in credited hits (486), trailing only Alex
Ovechkin (803) and Tom Wilson (942), players who have at least three inches and
at least 20 pounds on Oshie. It has come
at a price, though, and it might have been a high price in the opening round of
this season’s playoffs. It is not too
much to imagine that Oshie’s presence would have meant more than his
inspirational value cheering on the Caps over the last three game against
Carolina. Everyone hopes Oshie comes
back strong and, even more, finishes strong and healthy in 2019-2020.
Grade: B