2010-2011 By the Tens -- Forwards: Boyd Gordon

Boyd Gordon

Theme: “It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
-- John Wooden

Boyd Gordon is not a scorer. So if your sense of player value rests on goals, assists, and points, then chances are you are not going to see a lot of value in a player such as Gordon. But even here, some perspective is in order. Of the twelve Caps forwards who played in at least 40 games with the club this season, Gordon was the only one to average less than one point (0.76) per 60 minutes of play at 5-on-5 (numbers from behindthenet.ca). He had fewer points for the season (nine) than a player who was traded away in December (Tomas Fleischmann, 10) and fewer than an occasional call-up who played in 25 fewer games (Mathieu Perreault, 14). In fact, nothing in his ten-game splits suggest anything extraordinary. He did not record more than two points in any ten-game stretch, and he was a “minus” player in five of them. Overall, his ten-game splits look like this:

About those games played. Gordon missed 46 games in 2009-2010 to several bouts with a back problem. In 2010-2011 he still missed 22 games to a variety of injuries, but the 60 games he did dress for was closer to the average of the three seasons preceding last season (67 games). But in those 60 games the Caps were 38-16-6. In the 22 games in which he did not dress the Caps were 10-7-5. He doesn’t score, but there must be other things that stand out.

At 5-on-5 Gordon averaged 2.18 goals against while on ice per 60 minutes of play. That was in the middle of the rankings for Caps forwards (40 games played, minimum). Doesn’t sound especially impressive. Except that in the same situations, the quality of competition faced by Gordon was surpassed by only one other Cap forward (Matt Bradley). On a team that switched gears in mid-season to focus more on defense, what Gordon could do at that end became more important, and his presence coincided with more Caps wins.  How he compared to the 2009-2010 season is as follows:

Part of Gordon’s success here was a product of his success on draws in the defensive zone – 158 defensive zone faceoff wins in 272 total draws. And in penalty killing situations, no Cap forward (minimum 40 games) came close to the number of defensive zone draws he was on for. Gordon was out for 222 defensive zone faceoffs taken in the 60 games he played, 61 percent of which were won. He was out for almost as many draws won (135) as Nicklas Backstrom (136) and Brooks Laich (142) were on in total in such situations.

Then there were the other little things… Gordon led the team’s forwards in blocked shots per game (.833). He had the second fewest giveaways among forwards playing in at least 60 games. Only eight minor penalties all season (if you’re going to kill penalties, you don’t want perhaps your best defensive forward the one in the box).

Odd Gordon Fact… Gordon was not a “plus” player on any day of the week in 2010-2011.

Game to Remember… December 1, 2010. Gordon got the game winning goal in a 4-1 Capitals decision on an odd sort of play mid-way through the second period, when he backhanded the puck from below the goal line out in front, where goaltender Jaroslav Halak misplayed it into his own goal. He added a hit and a blocked shot, and he won 11 of 17 draws in the win.

Game to Forget… November 11, 2010. Gordon skated three shifts in a 6-3 Capitals win. He took a shot to the leg 20 seconds into his third shift and skated a total of 1:42. He would end up sitting out three of the next four games. Gordon doesn’t get a ton of ice time, but it was the only time in 61 games that he skated fewer than ten minutes.

Post Season… Given the role played by Gordon with the Caps, you might say he had a pretty good post season, all things considered. He was on the ice for only two goals among the 24 allowed by the Caps in nine games (only one at even strength). The flip side is that he contributed no offense in the nine post season games – no points, only 13 shots on goal, no shots on goal in any of the last three games of the four-game Tampa Bay sweep in the second round.

In the end, the Caps had a decision to make between Boyd Gordon and David Steckel. Which defensive “specialist” would the Caps retain? Gordon certainly had the more cap-friendly contract, to the extent that was a consideration at the trading deadline (a $300,000 lighter annualized cap hit). And, Gordon was arguably the better defensive player, anyway. Certainly he was a more effective penalty killer (almost a goal-per-60 minutes/on ice better than Steckel in 4-on-5 situations).

The question going forward as Gordon becomes an unrestricted free agent is whether the Caps can afford a fourth liner who is a very adept defensive player and penalty killer, but who contributes almost no offense and has had persistent durability issues (113 games missed over the past five seasons). Whether the little details that Gordon attends to can translate into a winning formula for the Caps will be the summer's question for this player. That is one of the little details the team must now consider.

Grade: B-

(Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Forwards: Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom

Theme: “Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.”
-- Theodore Roethke

In Nicklas Backstrom’s first three seasons, the arc of his numbers was unfailingly pointing upward… 14 goals, then 22, then 33… 55 assists, then 66, then 68… 69 points, then 88, then 101… plus-13, plus-16, plus-37. Better than a point a game player in 28 playoff games (30 points on 12-18-30, plus-13). And he did it all without missing a game, regular season or playoffs. For a center with uncommon playmaking gifts and an underrated scoring touch, a Caps fan might have been forgiven if he or she thought that 110 points and maybe a Conn Smythe Trophy was in store for the 23-year old Swede.

Well, things didn’t turn out that way for Backstrom in 2010-2011. Oh, they started well enough. He was 11-19-30, plus-10 in his first 26 games of the season through December 1st, which works out to a 35-60-95, plus-32 pace over 82 games. And he had not been an especially hot starter in his young career. In 68 pre-Thanksgiving games on the calendar in his first three seasons, Backstrom was a combined 10-42-52, plus-4 (12-51-63, plus-5 on an 82-game pace). That 95-point pace might have picked up in the last 50 or so games to push him over 100 points again…well over 100 points, in fact.

Then came that pesky losing streak.

In the 0-6-2 streak the Caps endured in December 2010, Backstrom went 0-4-4, minus-5, and while that was going on the Caps were deciding to change their philosophy to put more emphasis on defense. Backstrom has been a responsible player in his own end, despite his young age, but the change over really seemed to affect his game at the offensive end. From the game in which the Caps broke their losing streak until March 7th, when the Caps beat Tampa Bay, 2-1, in a Gimmick (the significance the date being something we will return to), Backstrom went 6-15-21 in 33 games, a 15-37-52 scoring pace. He did, however, record a plus-13 over that span (a plus-32 pace) that was quite respectable given that the Caps were playing lower scoring games and not generally scoring as much on their own.  The ten-game splits look like this...

But back to that March 7th game. That brought an end to Backstrom’s consecutive games played streak to start his career at 313 games., because in a 1-0 win at Pittsburgh on February 21st, Backstrom appeared to have taken a slash in the hand from Penguin defenseman Kris Letang. The slash might have resulted in a broken thumb for Backstrom (you know how tightlipped the club is on talking about injuries). Backstrom gutted things out for another six games, over which he was 2-0-2. Here is the odd thing, though. In those six games after the game in which he appeared to suffer the injury, he won 28 of 40 draws (70.0 percent). But he took only four of those draws in the first three games after the injury, winning three of them. Backstrom would miss five games after the March 7th game against Tampa.

All in all, after that injury in Pittsburgh on February 21st, Backstrom would finish up the year playing in 16 of the Caps’ last 21 games, going 3-9-12, plus-8. You could say the injury played a part. But if you look at the pre- and post-decision games when it came to the Caps’ change in philosophy, Backstrom was 11-23-34, plus-6 in his first 34 games (and that included the eight-game Caps losing streak). After the change, he was 7-24-31, plus-18 in 43 games. His own offense suffered, but he was on the ice for more good things than bad at even strength.  When compared to last season, though...

The offense might have suffered for another reason, and that was that Backstrom was expressly called upon to assume a more defensive posture. If you want to read an excellent treatment of that, read this analysis over at Japers’ Rink. But here is something to consider in that context. Backstrom’s offensive zone starts finished at 51.0 percent for the season, and his offensive zone finishes came in at 51.5 percent for the season (down substantially from 58.0 percent and 54.3 percent, respectively, in 2009-2010). Backstrom averaged 0.84 points per game this year versus 1.23 last season. Compare that to another center, one whose offensive zone starts this season came in at 47.0 percent, while his offensive zone finishes were at 53.4 percent. He averaged 1.61 points per game before his own injury ended his season – Sidney Crosby. Just a frame of reference.

Odd Backstrom Fact… Despite a career low in points, this past season marked the third time in four seasons that he had three games of at least four points. Two of this year’s four-point games came against Tampa Bay.

Game to Remember… November 11, 2010. Backstrom assisted on the goal that put the Caps ahead to stay and assisted on the eventual game-winner, finishing with four helpers in a 6-3 win over Tampa Bay. He added two hits, three takeaways, and two blocked shots, while finishing with 12 wins on 18 faceoffs.

Game to Forget… February 8, 2011. Call it a statement game. The Caps had just come off wins over Tampa Bay (5-2) and Pittsburgh (3-0) and were facing one of the strongest teams from the west, the San Jose Sharks. Backstrom and crew laid an egg. The same quintet was on the ice for both Sharks goals – Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, Jason Chimera, John Carlson, and Karl Alzner. Backstrom had an otherwise quiet score sheet – two shots on goal, and he dropped ten of 17 faceoffs (he was better than 50 percent against only one of the six opponents he faced in the circle). No hits, takeaways, or blocked shots.

Post Season… If anything, Backstrom was consistent, as in uniformly ineffective. In the five-game Rangers series he was 0-1-1, even. In the Tampa Bay series he was 0-1-1, even. Only twice in nine games did he win a majority of his faceoffs. It was quite a reversal from his first three post-seasons in which he was 12-18-30, plus-13 in 28 games .

In the end, it appears that a coincidence of events – a change in team philosophy, too much time starting play at the other end of the ice, and injury – derailed Backstrom’s season, at least with respect to the offensive numbers he put up compared to expectations. None of those things should concern Caps fans in and of themselves. Until the freak injury from a slash, Backstrom proved to be very durable (and in fact played through that injury quite a bit). If the Caps use the off-season wisely, he could get some help from having to take so many defensive zone draws (as the folks at Japers’ Rink have argued), and even with a change in team philosophy, he has the skill to jump start those numbers to where he could challenge that 100-point mark again.

But here is another number that is going to have to change for him to challenge that 100-point mark: "22." In his first three season, Backstrom averaged 9-25-34 per season in power play points (79 points over his last two seasons). He was 4-18-22 last season. It was indicative of the power play woes the Caps faced, and not only a product of Alex Ovechkin not finding a spot to be able to convert Backstrom passes. Backstrom had 14 power play goals in 2008-2009, 11 extra-man goals in 2009-2011. He had four this past season.

He gets points for coping fairly well as the number one center on a team that had a major reconstruction of its philosophy in mid-season and for playing through injury. But his overall offensive contributions, particularly on the power play, were somewhat disappointing. That power play area is one that Caps fans might want to watch next year to see if Backstrom – and the Caps – can find their way back to a path that takes them deeper in the playoffs.

Grade: B

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Tyler Sloan

Tyler Sloan

Theme: “It's the niceties that make the difference; fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards."
-- Arthur Schopenhauer

"47-20-6"

That would be a pretty good record for an NHL team, 100 points in 73 games. It happens to be the Washington Capitals’ record in games played by Tyler Sloan over the past two seasons. In 2010-2011, that record was 21-10-2. But if you were to canvas the Caps Fan on the Street, you might think that Tyler Sloan gets up in the morning, pours his Wheaties down the drain, pours his milk in the trash can, and then has to scour around his house to find the manual on how to tie his shoes.

Ah, but fate has been somewhat kind to young Mr. Sloan. He plays for the Washington Capitals, a formidable (well, in the regular season) hockey team that can absorb the occasional foible of a defenseman who skates on the fine line between getting an NHL sweater and riding an AHL bus. So let’s get this out of the way upfront. If you look at Sloan’s ten-game splits (all of which are incomplete I that he had no “10-game” split), there isn’t much there…

…one goal for the season (Game 13 against Boston). No points after Game 18 (Sloan’s 13th of 33 games played). No “plus” games after Game 19 (Sloan’s 14th of 33 games).  Overall, it does not seem an improvement over last season...

Delving a bit deeper into Sloan’s numbers, he had the worst differential of goals for/60 minutes at 5-on-5 to goals against/60 minutes at 5-on-5 for any Capitals defenseman who played more than 20 games with the team (-1.04).* The flip side of that is that he had the “worst” differential in these measures when he was off the ice (+0.77). You could look at those two numbers and think, “hmm, good things happen when he’s off the ice, not so much when he’s on.”

But here is a stunner. Among ALL defensemen in the NHL playing more than 20 games (and there were 237 of them), Sloan had the second worst Corsi/Rel number (-18.8). Of 672 skaters playing in at least 20 games, only 15 had a worse number. Not to place too much emphasis on one number, but Corsi being a product of shots directed toward the net, Sloan was on the ice for an inordinate number of shots directed at his own net (versus those directed by the Caps to the opponents’ net) when he was on the ice as opposed to when he was off the ice – a rather damning statistic for a defenseman.

The folks at behindthenet.ca (who can never be praised enough for the data they have put together) have a curious set of measures – zone finishes in the offensive, defensive, and neutral zones. And from those numbers one can compare offensive zone starts to finishes. In other words, in the context of the teammates around him, doe a player “finish what he starts?” Looking at offensive starts and zone finishes, John Carlson and Karl Alzner had the best marks on the team in terms of their ratio of offensive zone finishes to offensive zone starts. Tyler Sloan was not far behind (third among eight defensemen who played in at least 20 games for the Caps). But given that, and the other numbers he recorded, it just seems to lay a firmer foundation that Sloan struggled in his own end.
Odd Sloan Fact… Despite finishing the year a minus-6 in 33 games, Sloan had only two “minus” games in his last 14 contests.

Game to Remember… November 14, 2010. Sloan recorded his only multi-point game of the 2010-2011 season, a two-assist effort, in a 6-4 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at Verizon Center. He had three hits and two blocked shots as well. And, he was not on the ice for any of the Thrashers’ goals. An odd footnote to that game. Sloan was credited with an assist (his second) on the Caps’ third goal of the game, scored by Alexander Semin. However, he was not credited with having been on the ice when the goal was scored, his having gone off on a change two seconds before the goal was scored.

Game to Forget… November 19, 2010. Five days later, Sloan faced the Thrashers once more. He was on the ice for the first four goals scored by Atlanta in a 5-0 payback game, while playing only 12:47. Not all of them could be laid at the skates of Sloan (although getting your pocket picked by Dustin Byfuglien and watching him skate in to score the fourth goal was rough), but the minus-4 was his worst as a Cap.

Post Season… Sloan did not dress for any game in the post season.

In the end, whether Sloan has been in the lineup (a .685 points earned percentage when he is over the last two seasons) or has not (a .703 points earned percentage), it hardly seems to matter a great deal in terms of outcome. If he is looked upon as a defenseman who can provide competent relief for an injured player for a short span of games, his shortcomings can be tolerated. The flip side of that, however, is that he has played in 73 games over the past two seasons. That impresses us as either: a) more than simply a “relief” defenseman, or b) that the Caps have sustained a substantial number of games missed to injury by defensemen. Considering that this year alone Mike Green missed 33 games, and Tom Poti missed 61, the injury thing is looking like a good explantation, at least for this season.

It is worth noting that after Dennis Wideman was obtained at the trading deadline, Sloan dressed for four of the next 14 games, until Wideman was injured (and, of course, Green was still out). Sloan is signed through next season, but to the extent Green and Wideman return healthy, added to Carlson, Alzner, and Jeff Schultz, there seems little room for Sloan to crack the lineup for many games. In that sense, Sloan seems to have been dealt a hand with three of a kind in getting a reasonable amount of ice time for the Caps. But his skill hasn’t allowed him to draw the fourth that would give him a winning hand in terms of more ice time.

Grade: C-


* numbers from behindthenet.ca

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Jeff Schultz

Jeff Schultz

Theme: “What if this is as good as it gets?”
-- Melvin Udall

In 2009-2010, Jeff Schultz led the NHL with a plus-50, the first defenseman to crack the plus-50 threshold since Chris Pronger did it in 1999-2000. Schultz also established career highs in games played (73), minutes played (1,450), assists (20), points (23), penalty minutes (32), shots on goal (43), hits (66), and fewest goals against on-ice at 5-on-5 (1.61).

Nice year. 2010-2011?...Not so much.

Well, to be more precise, not as much. If you look at his ten-game splits he started and finished relatively well…

…but the middle of his season wasn’t much to write home about, plus he missed nine games (Games 30-38, which accounted for almost all of his fourth ten-game split) with a broken thumb. Given his lackluster performance in his fifth and sixth ten-game splits (immediately after the injury, over which he was a combined 0-3-3, minus-6), perhaps that injury had some lingering effects.

Those lingering effects might have been reflecting in, perhaps surprisingly, his hits totals. Hit are a somewhat arbitrary statistic, dependent on what the eyes of an official scorer sees. But Schultz was credited with a rather substantial (for him) number before his injury (28 in his first three ten-game splits covering 29 games). After that injury, the hit totals dropped significantly (only five in Games 39-50) before picking up late.

Looking at this year versus last, though, Schultz’ basic numbers are almost uniformly worse:

Is that because his defense was worse, or because of other changes? Perhaps a hint at an answer can be found by looking at things another way. For example, that plus-50 Schultz had last year dropped all the way to plus-6 in almost the same number of games played. But here is the thing. In 2010-2011 Schultz’s goals-for per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 was 2.27, while his goals-against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 was the same – 2.27, for a plus/minus of “zero.” Compare that to the 2009-2010 season when the GA number was 4.23, and the GA number was 1.61, for a plus/minus of 2.62. Break this down a little more by comparing the GF from year to year with the GA from year to year, and you can see that of the 2.62 change in plus/minus, 1.96 of that is explained away by changes in goals scored (4.23 in 2009-2010 compared to 2.27 in 2010-2011), while 0.66 of the change can be explained by changes on the goals allowed side of the equation (a number which, frankly, is a bit distressing in itself). These are high-level orders of review, and they don’t disentangle Schultz from the performance of his teammates in those situations. However, it can lead one to think that while Schultz might not have measured up in play to his 2009-2010 season, it is not the same thing as saying he played poorly. 2009-2010 was, after all, a career year for him and in terms of that plus/minus number quite remarkable in the context of recent NHL history.

Comparing some other of Schultz’ numbers from year to year suggests that he didn’t necessarily “play” much worse than the 2009-2010 season (or at least as much as the basic numbers might suggest). For example, he had 15 games of plus-2 or better in 2009-2010, 11 such games this past season (a product of less offense?). He was on ice for a total of 54 goals against in 2009-2010, 60 goals this past season. What he did have, though, was a significantly higher number of minus games – 23 this past season compared to 11 in 2009-2010. All in all, Schultz (and this would apply to a Karl Alzner as well) is the sort of player whose numbers, especially those like a plus/minus, depend on what goes on around him much more than himself, since he does not contribute much offense. The Caps were not the offensive team they were a year ago, and the difference in Schultz’ GF/60 at 5-on-5 compared to his GF/60 at 5-on-5 for the two years suggests that this is strongly the case (numbers from behindthenet.ca).

Odd Schultz Fact… Schultz had two four-game minus streaks, neither of which coincided with the Caps’ eight-game losing streak in December (Games 19-22 in November and Games 43-46 in January). He was minus-13 in those eight games, plus-19 in his other 64 games.

Game to Remember… March 18, 2011. If you are going to score only one goal all season, it’s nice to make it a game-winner. And it’s even nicer to score it on a hall-of-fame to be goaltender. Such was the case in March, when Jeff Schultz pulled a “Mike Green” and stepped into some open space at the edge of the left wing circle, took a pass from Mike Knulble, and one-timed it over the catching glove of Devils’ goalie Martin Brodeur. It was the first goal of the night and the only one goalie Michal Neuvirth would need in pitching a 3-0 shutout. Schultz added a couple of hits for good measure.

Game to Forget… January 12, 2011. Schultz was on the ice for all three goals against as the Caps fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3-0 loss. On the first goal he skated himself out of the play by following a rushing Nate Thompson to the boards, then neither putting a body on him nor using his stick to separate him the puck from his possession. Thompson fed the puck in front, where Tom Poti was the only defenseman in a position to defend; it did not end well. On the second goal he was caught in no-man’s land above the circle, not quite defending Steve Downie, and Tampa Bay ended up scoring another goal from in-close. On the last one, he tried to flick the puck away from a breaking Simon Gagne, but it was a less than confident effort, and Gagne scored on a breakaway. He earned his minus-3.

Post Season… Like so many other Caps, you could argue Schultz had two different playoffs – the one against the Rangers (plus-five in five games) and the one against Tampa Bay (minus-4 in four games. But there is this. Over the nine games the Caps played, Schultz had by far the best GA/ON per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 of all Caps defensemen (1.14) and the best by far plus/minus on ice per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 for the playoffs (1.14). He and Scott Hannan were the only two Caps defensemen who had better GA/ON numbers than GA/OFF. In Schultz’ case, the difference was 1.56 goals/60 minutes.  But he was on the ice for six goals in the Tampa Bay series, two of them on Lighting power plays, and half of them came in a 3-2 loss in Game 2 that put the Caps squarely behind the eight ball in a series they would lose in a sweep.

In the end, folks will always find shortcomings in Schultz’s play. Such is the price for a defenseman with Chris Pronger’s size (6’6”, 230), but with Nick Schultz’ game (6’1”, 200). We don’t think one could argue that Jeff Schultz had the year he had in 2009-2010; not close. The 2009-2010 season was a career year for him, perhaps not to be repeated. If anything, his year looked more like the previous season, 2008-2009, in which he was 1-11-12, plus-13 in 64 games, but that means a step or three back. Maybe the 2009-2010 season was as good as it gets for Schultz, which by no means makes his 2010-2011 season a bad one. Trouble is, neither was it an especially good one.

Grade: C+

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Tom Poti

Tom Poti

Theme: “All lovely things will have an ending, All lovely things will fade and die; And youth, that's now so bravely spending, Will beg a penny by and by.”

-- Conrad Aiken

Three… eight… six… two… three…one… forty seven.

In nine seasons before joining the Washington Capitals in 2007, defenseman Tom Poti missed more than ten games in a season twice. With the 2010-2011 season now behind us, Poti has missed more than ten games twice in four seasons with the Caps. This past season, Poti missed 61 regular season and nine post-season games in the chunks described in that set of numbers above, the last 47 of which (38 regular season, nine post season) closed the 2010-2011 campaign. It is hard for any player to build any personal momentum when you have only one streak of consecutive games played longer than four contests in what amounts to half a season’s worth of play.

Poti has now missed 114 games over four seasons as a Cap. Compare that to having missed a total of 144 games in nine seasons before arriving in D.C. And the injury sheet is long (courtesy of tsn.ca; 2010-2011 season in bold):

November 2007: 6 games (groin)
January 2008: 3 games (upper body)
February 2008: 2 games (lower body)
November 2008: 5 games (groin)
December 2008: six games (groin)
January 2009 (15 games (groin)
March 2009: 2 games (groin)
April 2009: 4 games (groin; to end of regular season)
December 2009: 6 games (upper body)
December 2009: 2 games (undisclosed)
March 2010: 2 games (groin)
April 2010: 1 game (playoffs; orbital bone fracture)
October 2010: 3 game (lower body injury)
November 2010: 8 games (lower body injury)
November 2010: 6 games (groin)
December 2010: 2 games (groin)
January 2011: 3 games (head injury)
May 2011: 38 games/regular season, 9 games/playoffs (lower body)

What Caps fans didn’t get to see was whether Poti – who suffered a ghastly eye injury in Game 6 of the 2010 Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series – could make an inspired comeback. As it turned out, in only two of his eight ten-game splits did he manage to dress for more than five games (six in his third ten-gamer, seven in his fourth ten-gamer). The two splits were more or less a microcosm of his up and down (in and out?) season. In the Games 21-30 split Poti was 1-4-5, plus-3, in six games. In the Games 31-40 split he was 0-1-1, minus-4, the last of which was a 3:34 ice time effort against the Penguins two days before Christmas. Happy Holidays.  The whole picture by the tens looked like this...

One of the more unfortunate outcomes of the season for Poti was that there were tantalizing indications he could have been a significant contributor to the blue line. Among Caps defensemen playing in at least 20 games (Poti played in 21), he led the defensemen in goals and points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. OK, so we’re dealing with a player who had all of two goals and seven points. We get it, but it’s what we have, and who knows? That’s what makes it “tantalizing.” On the other hand, though, he was on the ice for more than a goal per game per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 more than both Karl Alzner and John Carlson (3.05 versus 1.90 and 1.93, respectively; numbers from behindthenet.ca). Again, few data points, but who knows?  What it meant was a dreadful year compared to last...

Odd Poti Fact… Or perhaps, “Depressing Poti Fact.” In his first three seasons with the Caps, Poti did not average less than 21 minutes a night of ice time. Not only did that number dip to 18:21 in 2010-2011 in the 21 games he did play, but in two of the last four games he dressed for he did not make it to ten minutes of ice time.

Game to Remember… December 6, 2010. When the Toronto Maple Leafs visited Verizon Center in early December, the Caps treated their guests rudely, jumping out to a 4-1 lead with the game barely past the half-way point. Tom Poti assisted on three of the goals in what would be his first three-point game in the regular season as a Cap. He added a team-high three blocked shots for good measure. Of course, this being a “Tom Poti” game to remember, and knowing the kind of season he had, the Caps gagged on the three-goal lead, allowing three scores in the third period before losing the game in a Gimmick, 5-4.

Game to Forget… every one of them after he started against Tampa Bay on January 12th and lasted only ten shifts, one in the second period, as the Caps lost 3-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He did not take the ice again in the 2010-2011 season.

Post Season… Wasn’t one to write about.

In the end, that 47-game void that makes up the end of Poti’s season means that there just is not a lot to grab onto when looking back at his season. Couple that with Mike Green’s absence for all but one of the last 26 games of the regular season, and one might wonder how the Caps ended up on top of the Eastern Conference standings. If Green has question marks about his durability as a result of his absences, for Poti the questions are about his ability to come back at all.

The recurring groin injuries have no doubt taken a considerable toll on him, and as a result even George McPhee suggested that his career now hangs in the balance. It is vaguely reminiscent of the recurring problems Brian Sutherby had some years ago for the Caps, and the solution seems as elusive. The difference here being that Sutherby was a comparative youngster who had not yet suffered much of the wear and tear the NHL can put on a player, while Poti now has more than 850 games of NHL experience (regular season and playoffs) and will 34 years old this coming season. Still, 34 is too soon for a player to have to consider that the end is looming. But the four years he has spent in Washington have not been kind to Poti as far as his durability is concerned. What that means is that one of the lingering questions over the summer will be whether the one shift he skated in the second period of a game in January will be the last one Tom Poti skates in the NHL. Having a career merely “fade away” is something no one – player or fan – wants to see unfold.

Grade: Incomplete

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Scott Hannan

Scott Hannan

Theme: “There is nothing so stable as change.”
-- Bob Dylan

In 2009-2010, the Caps defensive corps might be described as promising, what with Mike Green and Jeff Schultz putting together solid years, and John Carlson and Karl Alzner showing signs of being a steadfast duo for years to come. But the adjectives that were missing from the group were “stay-at-home” and “durable.” No Cap defenseman played in more than 75 games, only four playing more than 50 games. And when the Caps’ best example of a stay-at-home defenseman was Shaone Morrison, well, one could imagine a need to improve in that area.

The Caps would go almost two months into the 2010-2011 season before addressing that need and filling in the missing adjectives. Washington traded forward Tomas Fleischmann to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Scott Hannan, the culmination of several months of talks between the clubs. In Hannan the Caps got a defenseman who in 2009-2010…

-- Played more games (81) than any Caps defenseman (75 for Mike Green) and in fact had not appeared in fewer than 75 games in a season since he split time between San Jose in the NHL and Kentucky in the AHL in 1999-2000.
-- Had more blocked shots (144) than any Caps defenseman (129 for Jeff Schultz)
-- Played more minutes (1,776) than all but one Cap defenseman (1,911 for Green)
-- Had more shorthanded ice time (265 total minutes) than any Caps defenseman (253 minutes for Tom Poti)

And at age 31 (he turned 32 in January 2011) with almost 800 games of NHL experience, he had the experience that the Caps needed to complement the young defensemen Green, Schultz, Carlson, and Alzner.

So, just what the doctor ordered, right? Well, Hannan joined the Caps lineup on December 2nd in Dallas. They lost, 2-1. Then they lost their next game… and the next… and the next. The Caps welcomed their new defenseman on board just in time to lose eight games in a row. In those eight games, Hannan did not record a point (offense not being what he was brought on board to provide) and was a minus-9. He was on the ice for 12 of the 27 goals scored against the Caps in that skid.

After that, however, Hannan proved to be a stable anchor on the blue line. After the losing streak, he went 14 games without finishing on the minus-side of the ledger and overall finished up the last 47 games of the regular season 1-4-5, plus-12. And with Mike Green and Tom Poti spending much of the second half of the season on the shelf with injuries, the 20:16 a night he logged in ice time provided the kind of stability the Caps needed without having to heap even more responsibility on the youngsters on the blue line – John Carlson and Karl Alzner. As his splits with the Caps suggest, he struggled early upon joining the Caps (as did the rest of the team in that train wreck of a losing streak in December), but settled in quite nicely over the rest of the season…

Odd Hannan Fact… After starting with the Caps with six games on the minus side of the ledger in his first eight contests in a Caps jersey, he was a “minus” player only four times in his next 39 games.

Game to Remember… March 3, 2011. Scott Hannan is not known as a goal scorer; he came to the Caps having scored only 30 goals in 775 games, but on this night he did his best impression of Mike Green. Early in the second period, with the St. Louis Blues holding a 1-0 lead at Verizon Center, Hannan settled into some open space at the top of the right wing circle. In the opposite corner, Matt Hendricks outfought Carlo Colaiacovo for a loose puck, which squirted to Alex Ovechkin behind the Blues’ net. Ovechkin threaded a pass to Hannan in the circle, but Hannan, not being a Mike Green, did not one-time the puck. It worked out for him though as goalie Ty Conklin went down once, sprang back up, then went down again as Hannan teed up. Hannan snapped the puck high over Conklin’s glove hand on the near side for his first, and what would be his only goal for the Caps this season in a 3-2 win.

Game to forget… December 11, 2010. Shortly after arriving in Washington, Hannan had the opportunity to face his old team, the Colorado Avalanche. It was not what Hannan might have envisioned. He was on the ice for all three goals scored by the Avalanche, finished minus-2, and otherwise had a rather quiet scoresheet (one hit, one blocked shot) in the 3-2 loss that extended a Caps losing streak to five games.

Post Season… There is the forest, and there are the trees. Overall, you might say Hannan ended up about where you would expect. In nine games, he had an assist (no surprise there, being a stay-at-home type), and he was plus-1 over the nine games. But like the rest of the Caps, those numbers really don’t break down so well…plus-3 in five games against the Rangers, minus-2 in four against the Lightning. Against the Lightning in the second round sweep he was on the ice for five goals against (of the 16 Tampa Bay scored).

In the end, Hannan provided what the defense, looking back, sorely lacked – a sense of stability. For a group in which only the kid defensemen (Karl Alzner, John Carlson) played in all 82 games, one in which only two other defensemen (not including Hannan) played in more than 50 games, Hannan didn’t miss a game and despite coming to the team in December still finished fifth in total games played among Caps defensemen. Hannan is an unrestricted free agent and may be moving on, but for 55 games in the 2010-2011 season the change he brought was stability.

Grade: B+

photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Mike Green

Mike Green

Theme: You win some, lose some, and wreck some.
-- Dale Earnhardt

The Capitals returning to a playoff-caliber brand of hockey in 2007-2008 was accompanied by the emergence of Mike Green as an offensive force from the blue line. In three regular seasons starting with that 2007-2008 season Green recorded 68 goals, 137 assists, and 205 points, while going plus-69 in 225 games. He came into the 2010-2011 season having built a reputation as the best offensive defenseman in the NHL. Except…

There were those post season performances. Ones that seem to have withered over the course of the three years… 3-4-7 in seven games in 2008… 1-8-9 in 14 games in 2009… 0-3-3 in seven games in 2010. And it seemed to leave Green with a bit of a hangover coming into the 2010-2011 season. In the season’s first 26 games, Green played in 21 of them, posting a 5-8-13, plus-8 line. Not bad, but not the point a game pace he put up in the previous two years, either. He did have a “growth spurt,” as it were in that second set of ten games for the season (his full ten-game splits as follows)…

…but it would be the high water mark for Green’s season. His fortunes mirrored those of his teammates during that 0-6-2 stretch in December. He missed two of those games with the flu and was 0-1-1, minus-3 in the other six. It was a slump from which he never really recovered. Over the following 20 games after the losing streak Green went 4-7-11, plus-5.

In that 20th game, though, the wheels really began to fall off for Green’s season. On February 6th, the Caps hosted the Penguins in Washington. With three seconds left in the first period, Pittsburgh’s Brooks Orpik let fly with a one-timer that hit Green in the ear. He did not return for the rest of that game and would, in fact, play in just one of the following seven games before returning against the New York Rangers. Green lasted two shifts. On the second one, he and Ranger Derek Stepan went into the Olympia corner at Verizon Center, and Green was left on the ice, much worse for wear, having taken a check from Stepan moments before Ranger defenseman Steve Eminger scored the first goal in a 6-0 Ranger rout. It would be the last shift Green would take in the regular season.

Since becoming a full-time starter in the 2006-2007 season, Green finished the 2010-2011 season having played the fewest number of games over the five-year stretch (49), recording his second lowest goal total (eight), second lowest point total (24), and second worst plus-minus total (plus-6). If one is comparing this season with Green’s 2009-2010 season, this one was more or less a lost season…

And this now raises concerns about Green’s durability. He will only turn 26 in the first month of next season, but in the last three seasons he missed 15, seven, and 33 regular season games. The absentee chart looks like this (from tsn.ca):

December 2008: 11 games (shoulder)
December 2008 2 games (shoulder)
March 2008: 1 game (flu)
November 2009: 1 game (upper body injury)
January 2010: 1 game (undisclosed)
April 2010: 1 game (undisclosed)
October 2010: 3 games (undisclosed)
November 2010: 2 games (undisclosed)
December 2010: 2 games (flu)
February 2011: 5 games (undisclosed; injured reserve)
April 2011: 20 games (undisclosed; injured reserve)

The last two absences would appear to have been the result of concussions. Then, upon returning in time for this year’s first round playoff series against the New York Rangers, he took a shot from the Rangers’ Matt Gilroy in the head in game five with such force that it popped screws loose from his helmet.

It would be easy to say that Mike Green is a marked man, that as a puck carrier – the puck carrier from the Capitals’ blue line in recent years – that teams will target him on the forecheck with an aim toward punishing him with hits. But two of the three head shots he took this year came on shots, and the third – the hit from Derek Stepan – might have been a case of an aftershock of the first concussion he suffered, the product of a shot he took off his ear by Brooks Orpik. Nevertheless, as much as fans might want Green to return to something approximating his production over the 2008-2010 period, the first order of business in 2011-2012 will be answering the question, “can he stand up to an 82-game schedule?”

Odd Green Fact… In 2009-2010, Green was on ice for 1.08 goals against per game; in 2010-2011, he dropped that number to 0.82 goals against per game in his abbreviated 49-game season.

Game to Remember… October 30, 2010. In the 2009-2010 season, when Mike Green recorded 76 points in 75 games, he had only one game in which he had at least three points. On October 30th, he had his only three-point game of the 2010-2011 season. With the Caps trailing, 2-0, after barely 11 minutes had gone by in Calgary against the Flames, Green assisted on a Nicklas Backstrom power play goal late in the first period to halve the deficit. He then assisted on an Alex Ovechkin power play goal early in the second period to tie the game. After Ovechkin netted another power play goal 12 seconds later to give the Caps the lead, Green potted a goal of his own at even strength at 10:28 (one of only three even strength goals he would have for the season). It was part of a six-goal explosion in the second period against the Flames in a 7-2 Caps win. Green not only recorded his only three-point game of the season by added a pair of takeaways, as well as three hits and three blocked shots.

Game to Forget… February 12, 2011. After Green took one in the ear hole against the Penguins on February 6th, he sat out the next game against San Jose. Green returned on February 12th against the Los Angeles Kings, and in retrospect, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea. The Caps took an early lead on an Alex Ovechkin goal, but the Kings came back to score four unanswered goals, the first three of which were scored with Green on the ice. He added a roughing penalty as if for good measure and finished the evening with the only minus-3 night of his regular season, one that would have but one more game to play, courtesy of Derek Stepan.

Post Season… A Tale of Two Mikes, as it turned out. Green returned to the Caps lineup for Game 1 against the Rangers in the first round. He assisted on the game-tying goal in the third period in a 2-1 overtime Game 1 win for the Caps. Then, he added assists in each of the next three games as the Caps built a 3-1 lead in games. Luck was not a commodity in long supply for Green this season, though, and in Game 5, despite having already recorded a power play goal, he managed to skate only six shifts, the last of which ended when he took that shot from Matt Gilroy off the helmet. After that, well, Green’s fortunes mirrored those of the Caps against the Tampa Bay Lightning in round two. He played in the first three games, recorded an assist, and was minus-1 in each of the three games. He suffered one more injury in Game 3, sitting out the third period of a 4-3 loss, then sat out the season finale as the Caps were swept out of the playoffs by Tampa Bay.

In the end, there was no end. Green didn’t get off to a start that suggested he would keep pace with the offensive numbers he put up in the previous three seasons. But he was a better defensive player and was still chewing up large chunks of ice time. That would last barely half a season. A decent first half was derailed by injuries in the second half that raise more questions about his future than memories of his performance. And the answers to those questions could go a long way toward reversing the disappointment the Caps experienced once more in the spring.

Grade: Incomplete

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: John Erskine

John Erskine

Theme: Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.
-- Boris Pasternak

Coming into the 2010-2011 season, Capitals defenseman John Erskine had never played in more than 60 games in one season, never more than 52 games in a season for one team. His career high in goals was two. He never recorded double digits in points, never took more than 50 shots on goal.

Well, wasn’t this year a nice surprise? Erskine – pigeon-holed as a “physical defenseman” of modest (by NHL standards) skills, who might have been penciled in as a 6/7 sort of defenseman for the Caps – finished the regular season having played 73 games (a career high), scoring four goals (another career high), recording seven assists (tying a career high) and 11 points (yup…career high), and had 58 shots on goal (ditto).

Oddly enough, perhaps, he did most of this offensive “damage” in the first half of the season, as his ten-game splits illustrate…

That pace he was on in the first half of the season, had he been able to extend it, might have left him as the Caps’ third leading point getter on the blue line by the end of the season (behind John Carlson and Mike Green). But Erskine reverted to form in the latter half of the season, going 1-1-2, minus-2 in the second half after going 3-6-9, plus-3 in the first half.

It would be damning with faint praise to say Erskine had a pretty good year, “given his talent level.” Uh, he’s an NHL player, which means he’s among the top couple hundred or so of his kind (job title, “hockey defenseman”) on the entire planet. Anyone reading this want to make that claim in their job? That said, the fact that Erskine had a career year in so many respects might be as much a product of players around him. By this we mean that the emergence of a John Carlson or a Karl Alzner allowed Erskine to remain more often within the confines of his productive comfort zone.

An example…John Erskine’s first year with the Capitals was the 2006-2007, one in which he played in 29 games (the low number being largely a product of missing 25 games with a broken foot). He averaged 18:02 in ice time that season. Since then, his ice time has dropped…15:42 in 2007-2008… 16:47 in 2008-2009… 15:58 in 2009-2010… 14:49 this past season. Perhaps managing Erskine’s time more closely – a luxury the Caps could indulge with Carlson and Alzner now gobbling up large chunks of time – allowed him to become more productive in a more limited role. He certainly improved in most respects from the 2009-2010 season…

In fact, Erskine’s quality of competition ranked lowest among all nine Caps defensemen playing in at least 20 games. That has been true in the previous two seasons as well, and he was next to last in the 2007-2008 season. But with less ice time, the exposure to liability was not as great.

There is another set of considerations here with Erskine. Beyond numbers, it would be hard to name a Caps defenseman who gave his “A” effort on a more consistent basis. Indirectly, this might have been evidenced by his finishing with lower than a minus-2 only once in 73 games, and only twice this season did he finish consecutive games on the minus side of the ledger. OK, last year those occurrences were “never” and “once,” but last year the Caps steamrolled teams to the tune of better than a goal-per-game winning margin. This year, with the Caps playing games with much thinner average margins of victory, a defenseman with the alleged liabilities of an Erskine would have been harder to hide, or at least hide from the numbers. Erskine accounted well for himself.

Odd Erskine Fact…Plus-11 at home, minus-10 on the road.

Game to Remember… February 16, 2011. In a game in Anaheim against the Ducks, the home team was on the long end of a 5-4 puck fest late in the second period. With 3:13 left in the frame, the Ducks’ Andy Sutton boarded Matt Hendricks. Erskine jumped in to get his pound of flesh from Sutton. He was given an instigator, a fighting major, and a ten-minute misconduct for his trouble, although he did win the fight (and Sutton got his own “two and five” for boarding and fighting). The Caps would have to kill another penalty later in that period, but they came out smoking in the third, getting a goal from Mike Knuble on a breakaway in the first minute, then getting two more (to Anaheim’s one) while holding he Ducks to five third period shots in stealing a 7-6 win. Erskine did not skate another shift after that, but maybe he played his part in kicking the Caps up a notch for the third period.

Game to Forget… November 19, 2010. The Caps were on an 8-0-1 roll when they went to Atlanta to visit the Thrashers. The Caps had just beaten Atlanta, 6-4, only five days before. But the Caps stepped in a big steaming pile, and Erskine certainly didn’t step around it. In less than 14 minutes of work he was on the ice for three goals against (his season-worst minus-3 the result) and took a late elbowing penalty in a 5-0 loss.

Post Season… Not too good. Erskine was on ice for seven of the 24 goals scored against the Caps, which in and of itself is not necessarily bad (he was a plus-1 for the post season). But he was on the ice for five of the 16 goals scored against Washington in the second round series against Tampa Bay. Given his ice time and the matchups one would want to get, that’s a high number, especially since he was on the ice for three goals scored by Sean Bergenheim. Tampa’s forward had a Drucian post season (nine goals in 16 games, four of them against the Caps), and Erskine got to see much of it from entirely too close a vantage point.

In the end, the Caps got more out of John Erskine this season than perhaps fans might have expected. Erskine was on ice for 41 goals in 73 games (by way of comparison, Mike Green was on for 40 in 49 games). On ice for 0.56 goals/game, Erskine experienced a marked drop from his being on ice for 0.64 goals against in 2009-2010. Yes, that might be a reflection of the Caps shifting to a more defensive posture generally, but Erskine wasn’t a “weak link” in that change. The post-season revealed some problems, but we think Caps fans should be more pleased with John Erskine’s contribution in the regular season portion of the 2010-2011 season.

Grade: B-

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America)

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: John Carlson

John Carlson

Theme: Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other
-- Seneca

OK, you’ve just made your NHL debut two months before your 20th birthday, then you score the game-winning goal in overtime in the World Junior Championship title game (and are named to the WJC all-star team for good measure) a few days before you turn 20 years old. You are recalled by the Caps two weeks later and finish the regular season with the big club by going plus-11 in 22 games. Then, with your team having lost its first playoff game in the post season at home and down a goal late in the third period of Game 2, in danger of going down 0-2, you score the game-tying goal with 81 seconds left and save, at least for the moment, the season (the Caps going on to win that game in overtime). After your team is eliminated in the post season, you go back down to Hershey, where not only does your team skate off with the championship, but you score the game-winning goal in the Calder Cup-clinching game.

And you’re not even “technically” a rookie in the NHL…how the hell do you top that season as you embark on your NHL rookie campaign?

Meet John Carlson, Real American Hero and Man with a Flair for the Dramatic. Absent curing cancer, solving global warming, stabilizing U.S. currency, and single-handedly winning the war on poverty (or drugs, terror, whatever), anything he did this season might be viewed as underachieving. But he is a hockey player, and a mighty fine one. Did we say he will not turn 22 until next January?

As for his 2010-2011 season, we can start with his overall numbers through his ten-game splits…

Now, let’s put them in context. Among Washington defensemen, Carlson…

-- Tied for the team lead in games played (82, with Karl Alzner)
-- Was second in goals scored (seven, to Mike Green’s eight)
-- Led the team in assists (30) and overall scoring (37 points)
-- Led in plus-minus (plus-21)
-- Led in game-winning goals (three)
-- Led in shots on goal (144)
-- Was second in total average ice time per game (22:38, among defensemen playing at least 20 games for the Caps)
-- Led in blocked shots (160)
-- Led in takeaways (60)

Among his rookie defenseman cohorts, Carlson…

-- Was the only one to play in all 82 games (P.K. Subban was next with 77 games played)
-- Tied for fourth in goals
-- Tied for second in assists
-- Finished fourth in total points
-- Tied for first in game winning goals (with Cam Fowler and Subban)
-- Was second in shots on goal (to Subban)
-- Was second in plus-minus (to Adam McQuaid)
-- Finished first in total average ice time per game
-- Finished first in blocked shots
-- Finished first in takeaways

It wasn’t all unicorns and glitter – Carlson did lead all rookie defensemen in giveaways, and only four rookie blueliners were on the ice for more goals against, but in a perverse sense even those numbers were a reflection of the responsibility placed on Carlson’s (and his usual partner, Karl Alzner’s) shoulders. If you’re out there long enough, largely facing the opponent’s best, you’re going to get beat. His rookie competitors did not as often enjoy the level of responsibility Carlson was asked to bear.

Carlson showed considerable consistency in his offensive production across his ten-game splits, and he finished strong (2-7-9, plus-7 in his last dozen games of the season while averaging almost 24 minutes a night). It led to a season that was, even if put on an equivalent games played basis, an improvement over the previous season:

Here’s the thing, though. Of 173 defensemen in the NHL who played in at least 50 games (regardless of years in the league) only 23 played against higher quality competition than did Carlson (statistics from behindthenet.ca) – higher than Drew Doughty or Shea Weber or Christian Ehrhoff or Tyler Myers, to name a few you might recognize. No rookie defenseman played to a higher level of competition than did Carlson.

Odd Carlson Fact…John Carlson played the last 33 games of the season never having skated less than 20 minutes in any of them. The next longest streak of 20-plus minute games to end the season among rookie defensemen? Seventeen (P.K. Subban).

Game to Remember…October 9, 2010. In the home opener for the Caps against the New Jersey Devils, the Caps spotted the Devils the first goal 1:49 into the game. Carlson got it back less than a minute later when he picked up a loose puck outside the Devils’ blue line, skated in, and wristed the puck past goalie Martin Brodeur and just under the crossbar for his first goal of the season. After the Devils would grab the lead once more, Carlson assisted on the next two goals (the second of which was the game winner) to give him a 1-2-3 night in a Caps 7-2 win in which Carlson earned the second star.

Game to Forget…February 25, 2011. Yes, the same game as we noted Karl Alzner might want to forget, but when you are one another’s partner, it should not be surprising. In a 6-0 loss to the New York Rangers, Carlson was on the ice for four goals against. At the other end, he attempted nine shots (two on goal) on a bizarre night when 28 of the Caps’ 72 shot attempts came from five defensemen (this was the game in which Mike Green suffered a concussion at the hands, so to speak, of Derek Stepan). None of Carlson’s shots found their mark.

Post Season…It wouldn’t appear as if Carlson had an especially bad post season (2-1-3, minus-2 in nine games), but Carlson struggled in the Rangers series (0-1-1, minus-3 in five games, on ice for four of the eight goals scored against in the series), and his two goals in the series against Tampa came in Games 3 and 4, after the Lightning had established a 2-0 advantage in games (although he was on the ice for only four of 16 goals scored against the Caps in the four games).

In the end, Carlson’s season might not have been as remarkable as the season preceding it, but he enjoyed an excellent season, nevertheless. We were leery of projecting him at even as many as 28 points when the season started. That he ended up with 37 (still in the top-35 among all defensemen) was a pleasant surprise. His ice time and quality of competition faced did not faze him, although he was a bit more out of his depth in this year’s playoffs. He was certainly worthy of being in the Calder Trophy conversation as the top rookie in the league, and he was arguably the top defenseman in this rookie class. Flashy? Perhaps not, but it is a very good foundation on which Carlson can embark on a long NHL career.

Now…about that global warming thing.

Grade: B+

2010-2011 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Karl Alzner

From the “better late than never” file, we get on with looking back at the Caps “by the tens.” First up, the defense and…

Karl Alzner

Theme: Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.
-- Peter Marshall

(click pic for a larger version)

Karl Alzner was taken with the fifth overall pick in the 2007 draft, and if it seems as if it has taken a long time for him to cement his place in the Caps lineup, it is perhaps a product of his being a fifth overall pick. Call it "high expectations."  Alzner was taken on the heels of a fine year with the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League, and he spent one more year in Calgary after being selected by the Caps. In 2008-2009 he played the majority of his games in Hershey with the AHL Bears, but he did get 30 games with the Caps as injuries hit the blue line. It was a respectable beginning for a 20 year old defenseman (1-4-5, minus-1 in those 30 games), and might have been looked at as a launching pad for the next season.

In 2009-2010, however, Alzner once more spent the majority of his time in Hershey (56 games) with 21 games spent in Washington. Fans might be forgiven for thinking that Alzner was going sideways in his development. But Alzner was putting the finishing touches on his apprenticeship. He was called upon to play in one playoff game for the Caps in 2010 – the Game 7 loss to Montreal in the opening round – and then was returned to Hershey for the Bears’ run at a Calder Cup. Alzner played in 20 post season games for the Bears as Hershey repeated as AHL champs. In the process he was 3-7-10, plus-7, including a goal in the Bears’ Cup-clinching 4-0 win over the Texas Stars. Not a bad offensive line for a defenseman primarily known for his play in his own end. Here is how he compared to the 2009-2010 season:

That would be the last game Alzner played for the Bears. He played in all 82 games for the Caps in 2010-2011, one of three Caps to play in every game. One would like to say he was consistent over the course of the season, and in a way he was. In his ten game splits he finished on the minus side of the ledger only twice (minus-five in Games 21-30, which included the first four games of the Caps’ December eight-game losing streak, and minus-2 in Games 61-70). As if to reinforce the point, Alzner was “only” minus-2 in that eight-game losing streak, and he was “only” plus-2 in a nine-game winning streak the Caps had between February 26th and March 15th.

On the other hand, he seemed to alternate productive and unproductive groups of games, offensively. No points in his first ten games of the season, three in his next ten. None, three, one, three, one, and one followed in his ten-game splits. But even there, it was only the appearance of alternating production. Those three points in his sixth ten-game split – all of them came in Game 58, a 7-6 win over the Anaheim Ducks in which 11 different Caps had points, and six different Caps (including Alzner) had multi-point games. Taking that game into consideration, Alzner’s offensive production was largely limited to the first half of the season (2-4-6 in Games 1-40; 0-3-3, not including that three-point game, in Games 41-82). But he was plus-5 in those first 40 games, plus-9 to finish the season.  Here is a comparison of his 2010-2011 numbers to those of his 2009-2010 season:

As a practical matter, his offense didn’t, well…matter. Alzner was not – and should not have been – counted on to produce a lot of offense from the blue line. He wasn’t a big hitter, either (third among Caps defensemen in hits). However, he did have his moments. He recorded 54 of his 98 hits (and 15 of his 28 multi-hit games) in the three ten-game splits corresponding to Games 21-50 on the schedule. He had only 24 hits in the last 32 games of the season, none in his last six. With respect to those Games 21-50, had he extended that performance over the course of the entire season, he would have finished with 159 hits, which would have been second on the team behind the 166 that John Erskine had. Alzner is not known as an especially physical defenseman, but it was a somewhat odd progression through the schedule.

Odd Alzner Fact… Alzner was 2-10-12 for the year, but only one of those points (an assist) was recorded in 24 games against Southeast Division opponents (he assisted on a game-winning overtime goal in a 3-2 win over Florida on March 6th).

Game to Remember… March 6, 2011. In a 7-6 win over the Anaheim Ducks, Alzner had three assists, his career best in assists and points (three) in a game. Two of the helpers came on goals that tied the game, the third on the game-winning goal with 1:47 left.

Game to Forget… February 25, 2011. Alzner was on the ice for three goals in a 6-0 loss to the New York Rangers. In addition, he was credited with no takeaways, no blocked shots, no hits in 20:42 of ice time.

Post season… If you are going to be primarily a defensive defenseman, then you can’t be the guy who was on the ice for the most goals against. In nine games and 24 total goals allowed by the Caps, Alzner was on the ice for ten of them (led the team) – five in five games against the Rangers, five in four games against the Lightning. It was Alzner’s first extended experience in an NHL playoff setting, and in that respect this spring’s performance might be chalked up to “learning.”

In the end, for all the waiting Alzner and Caps fans experienced in his getting to the NHL as a permanent fixture, he now has played in more NHL games (133) than any other defenseman in his draft class. He was one half of what became the Caps’ best example of a “shutdown” pair (with John Carlson) for much of the season. He averaged 20:00 of ice time a game, almost none of it on the power play, which meant that he spent large chunks of time in that “defensive” role. Even if his ten-game splits suggest a bit of fading late (0-2-2, even in his last two splits), Alzner had a solid year for a player who came into the season with 51 games of regular season and one game of playoff experience.

Grade: B

How Clear the Reflection?

Over at Japers' Rink, the question was posed, "Is San Jose’s window closing? Read this and see how many similarities you can point out to the local puckers."  "This" refers to a column authored by ESPN hockey analyst Pierre LeBrun about the San Jose Sharks' going home from the Stanley Cup playoffs empty-handed once more.  And JP's question asked about how many similarities there are between the Sharks and the Washington Capitals.  Well, we took a look at LeBrun's comments, and penned a "parallel universe" sort of thing from the Caps' last two seasons (LeBrun's words in bold)...

The San Jose Sharks played their guts out Tuesday night in a 3-2 double-overtime loss, outshooting the victorious Vancouver Canucks 56-34, but went home empty-handed after five games in the Western Conference finals.

In 2010 the Washington Capitals played their guts out in a 2-1 Game 7 loss, outshooting the victorious Montreal Canadiens 42-16, but went home empty handed in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
*****

It's a feeling the Sharks are getting mighty tired of. They failed to reach the Stanley Cup finals once again when they looked every bit as dangerous as any other team in the league.

It’s a feeling the Caps are getting mighty tired of. This season they failed to get past the second round for the fourth consecutive season, the last three of which when they looked as dangerous as any team in the league.
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How many more times will they get here? Is the window for them closing?

How many more times will they get here? Is the window for them closing?
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What's puzzling about the Sharks is that they've knocked out the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings two years in a row -- no small achievement. But they've followed that up by losing eight of the nine games they've played in the Western Conference finals.

What’s puzzling about the Caps is that they set a record for points by a non-Original Six team in 2009-2010 and posted their third straight 100-point season in 2010-2011 – no small achievement. But in the last four years they have lost in the playoffs to teams seeded below them in the tournament.
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Glass half full or half empty?

Does the regular season matter?
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We can think of many NHL teams that would celebrate back-to-back conference finals appearances. Heck, fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs still revere those back-to-back trips in 1993 and 1994 as legendary moments in the franchise's history.

We can think of many NHL teams that would celebrate three consecutive 100-point seasons.
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The Sharks, however, self-admittedly set a loftier goal for their season once again: the Stanley Cup. Great teams aren't shy about setting the bar high. It shows confidence. But when the team falls short, questions are asked.

The Caps, however, do not give the appearance of a team setting the bar high with confidence. “We will look back at our series against the New York Rangers and see a 4-1 in games scorecard but we will know that our series had 2 OT games and every game was close with no margin of error. Luck played a big role in what we did… ("Ted's Take,” April 26, 2011)
*****

This second trip to the Western Conference finals and subsequent quick exit revealed a few truths: Thornton, Ryane Clowe, Logan Couture, Dan Boyle and Douglas Murray are up to the task. They brought it night in and night out and paid the price to have success in the playoffs. Clowe played the entire playoffs with a shoulder injury, McLellan revealed after the game. Clowe was so upset after the loss that he couldn't talk to reporters. This team needs more guys that care like he does.

The last few post-seasons and early exits revealed a few truths: Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are up to the task. They brought it night in and night out and paid the price to have success in the playoffs. Backstrom’s lack of production in the playoffs this past season might have been a product of a hand injury that took away is greatest gift, his ability to set up plays. Ovechkin played with nagging injuries for most of the season, yet still produced in the post season. The Caps need more guys who bring their “A” game like these two.
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But there are still too many passengers on this team.

But there are still too many passengers on the team.
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First and foremost, the challenge for GM Doug Wilson is to improve his blue line. The speedy Canucks exposed his defense in this series. Boyle and Murray hung in there, but after that, it was slim pickings. The injury to Jason Demers hurt, but the fact is the Sharks need to prioritize adding a top-four blueliner in the offseason. Look, we know they don't grow on trees, but that's a glaring need on this team.

First and foremost, the challenge for GM George McPhee is to improve the team's compete level. Going out early against teams ranked below them in the standings suggests that there is too much reliance on skill, not enough on grit, an ability to grind their way through a tough series. We know, that’s a hard commodity to identify, but that’s a glaring need on this team.
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Up front, the Sharks have to figure out what to do with Dany Heatley. His back-to-back 50-goal seasons in Ottawa seem like eons ago, his goal production has slipped dramatically and his inability to keep up with the playoff pace is a stunning reality. Heatley has three more years left on his deal at a $7.5 million cap hit. Heatley needs to have one of the hardest-working offseasons of his career, because three goals in 18 playoff just games doesn't cut it.

Up front, the Caps have to figure out what to do with their second line center position. Jason Arnott is an unrestricted free agent, and Marcus Johansson – who will someday be a fine player – has growing to do. They also need to figure out Alexander Semin. A hugely gifted winger, the Caps have not found a way to tap that skill consistently in the playoffs.
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Devin Setoguchi is a restricted free agent July 1. He had seven goals in these playoffs, two of them overtime winners. But his performance was inconsistent and frustrated the coaching staff. Do the Sharks re-sign him or explore his trade value at the draft?

Brooks Laich is an unrestricted free agent July 1. He had one goal in the playoffs, following a regular season with 16. And that comes after a playoff with two goals that followed a regular season of 25. That kind of dropoff can frustrate a coaching staff. Do the Caps resign him at the $4 million he might command on the open market?
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And what about Joe Pavelski, who exploded on the bigger stage last season with a clutch postseason and a terrific Olympics? Pavelski's playoff production dropped from an impressive 17 points (9-8) in 15 games last spring to 10 points (5-5) in 18 games this year. His two helpers Tuesday night were actually one of his better games. Still, what gives? Yes, last year he had a top-six role in the playoffs while this spring he dropped to third-line center, but he still racked up important power-play minutes. His slight regression is troubling for the Sharks.

And what about Eric Fehr, who had three goals in seven games against Montreal in last year’s playoffs, but was injured this post season and had only one goal in five games? His inability to approach the goal-scoring production he had in juniors, coupled with his injury history, has to be troubling for the Caps.
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On the flip side, the evolution of the captain this season was hugely encouraging. Thornton took his game to new heights, especially in the playoffs, playing both sides of the puck like never before. His willingness to sacrifice offense for two-way play is reminiscent of the great Steve Yzerman. So is Thornton's willingness to play through pain, the star center revealing afterward he separated his shoulder in Game 4 but played through it Tuesday night.

On the flip side, the evolution of the captain was somewhat encouraging. Alex Ovechkin’s goal total plummeted from 50 last season to 32 this season, but his embracing the defense-first makeover the Caps implemented in their eight-game losing streak in December was essential for the rest of the team adopting it. And he still produced five goals in nine games in the post season, giving him 25 in 37 career playoff games.
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In the end, the Sharks will look back on these playoffs and regret not disposing of the Anze Kopitar-less Kings in fewer than six games and not ending Detroit's season earlier than seven games after taking a 3-0 series lead. That sucked the life out of the Sharks, and they had nothing in the tank for the opening two games of the conference finals.

In the end, the Caps will look back on the last four years of disappointments and regret not being able to advance past lower-seeded teams and playing in so many seven-game series that sapped their energy or resulted in losses.
*****

It's a lesson the Sharks must remember for next season when they'll try yet again to get over the hump.

It’s a lesson the Caps must remember for next season when they’ll try yet again to get over the hump.
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"I'm sure we'll probably sit back and think about it," Couture said. "Right now, the sting of the loss is so tough to overcome. It just sucks. It sucks."

“I’m sure they’ll probably sit back and think about it," a Caps fan said. “Right now, the sting of the losses has to be so tough to overcome. It just sucks. It sucks.”


No two situations are identical, and this applies to the Sharks and the Caps in this instance.  But both teams have a shared history of playoff frustration, and neither team has won a Cup.  The question for both of them now becomes, "do they have it within them to reach that goal, or have we seen the best they have to offer?"