Washington Capitals: 2019-2020 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Jonas Siegenthaler

Jonas Siegenthaler

 “I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
-- Louisa May Alcott

 

 

When the 2015 NHL Central Scouting final rankings of international skaters was released, Jonas Siegenthaler of Switzerland was ranked 12^th among all skaters and fourth among all international defensemen, behind Gabriel Carlsson (second overall), Jacob Larsson (third), and Oliver Kylington (sixth).  As things turned out, Siegenthaler would be the 19^th defenseman taken in the 2015 Entry Draft, 57^th overall by the Washington Capitals.  That he did not go higher might have been a product of what were perceived as his offensive limitations.  Whatever those limitations were, however, the Caps saw something in this prospect, trading the 62^nd and 113^th overall picks in the 2015 draft to the New York Rangers to move up and select Siegenthaler (in an historical footnote, the Rangers selected Robin Kovacs and Brad Morrison with the picks they received).

Siegenthaler then moved up the organizational ladder, wrapping up his apprenticeship in Europe, and then with the Hershey Bears, before joining the Caps for the 2018-2019 season.  He played in 26 games in his first season in Washington, posting a 0-4-4, plus-6 scoring line in the regular season and no points with an even rating in four postseason games. 

His playing 26 games last season prevented Siegenthaler from carrying rookie status into the 2019-2020 season, but his first full season in the NHL was a solid one, nevertheless.  He dressed for 64 of the Caps’ 69 games (fourth most among defensemen), posted nine points (fifth), a plus-11 rating (fourth), averaged 15:44 in ice time (sixth among defensemen playing in more than ten games), 3.03 hits per 60 minutes (third among defensemen appearing in more than ten games), and 6.25 blocked shots per 60 minutes (first).

Fearless’ Take…

Jonas Siegenthaler has completed two NHL seasons at age 23. In the span of Capitals history, his beginnings stack up rather well with his predecessors on defense for the team at a similar stage of development.  He has played in more games (90) than did Nate Schmidt (68) or Christian Djoos (63) at similar ages and development.  He has more points (13) than Schmidt (10) or Ken Klee (4) had.  He has a better plus-minus rating (plus-17) than Djoos (plus-13), Dmitry Orlov (plus-5), or Schmidt (plus-2) had.  And, he was not a liability, at least in terms of the balance of shot attempts.  His own shot attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 (50.0) allowed the Caps to have nine defensemen at or over 50 percent for the season.  He was not intimidated in road games, either, going 1-2-3, plus-9 away from Capital One Arena (1-5-6, plus-2 at home).

Cheerless’ Take…

Siegenthaler has not yet displayed much in the offensive end of the rink, but he went without a point in his last 20 games of the regular season.  He went without a goal in his last 28 games.  And, he had only one point in 24 games against Metropolitan Division teams (a goal against the New Jersey Devils on December 20^th in a 6-3- win).

Odd Siegenthaler Fact… The Caps were 19-4-5 in the 28 games in which Siegenthaler did not record a shot on goal. 

Odd Siegenthaler Fact II… Washington was 10-4-1 in the 15 games in which Siegenthaler was not credited with a blocked shot.

Odd Siegenthaler Fact III… Siegenthaler had five points against Atlantic Division teams this season, four against the other three divisions combined.

Game to Remember… November 9, 2019.  On November 9, 2018, Jonas Siegenthaler made his NHL debut, skating 12 minutes in a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, a game in which he did not record a point.  The first anniversary of his NHL debut would prove to be a happier occasion.  The Caps were hosting the Vegas Golden Knights at Capital One Arena, and they got off to a hot start. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored less than a minute into the contest, and Tom Wilson added a goal five minutes later for a 2-0 Caps lead.  Max Pacioretty got one back for the visitors, but the Caps took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

The teams skated most of the second period to a stand-off, but the Caps broke through late.  Travis Boyd knocked down a clearing attempt by Shea Theodore and settled the puck along the right wing wall.  With time and indecision by the Vegas defense to step on him on his side, Boyd found Siegenthaler darting down the left side in open ice.  He hit the defenseman in stride, allowing Siegenthaler to step up and wrist a shot past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for his first NHL goal to give the Caps a 3-1 lead. Vegas got it back less than two minutes later, but Nicklas Backstrom scored twice in the third period, once into an empty net, to give the Caps a 5-2 win and make Jonas Siegenthaler’s first NHL goal a game-winner.

Game to Forget… February 2, 2020.  Facing the Pittsburgh Penguins is always a big deal, for veterans and youngsters alike, and no one wants the occasion to go by without making a difference.  Unfortunately for Jonas Siegenthaler, this was not a night on which he would get much of an opportunity to make a difference, and what opportunities he did have went by with little worthy of notice.  The Caps scored first, thanks to a Lars Eller goal, but the Penguins tied the game just over a minute later (earning Siegenthaler a “minus”).  Then they scored again a minute later, and again midway through the second period to take a 3-1 lead.  The Caps closed to within a goal twice more but could not get the equalizer in a 4-3 loss.  Siegenthaler finished without a point, minus-1, took a penalty, recorded two shots on goal, and was credited with one blocked shot in 11:28 of ice time, six minutes fewer than any other defenseman and third lowest total for his season.

Postseason…

Seven games, no points, minus-7, four giveaways and only one takeaway, averaging 13:54 in ice time (more than two minutes less than he averaged in last season’s playoffs).  He was not alone in having a forgettable performance, but forgettable it was, save for the experience of it a young player might build from.

Looking Ahead…

Jonas Siegenthaler wrapped up a three-year contract with a cap hit of $714,166 this past season.  He is now a restricted free agent without arbitration rights.  It seems unlikely that renewing his service with the club will be much of an issue, which is a good thing for the club.  He is six or more years younger than any of the Caps defensemen regulars this season.  Renewing him gives him a chance to serve as part of the next generation of young defenders that the Caps need in the short term.

In the end…

Jonas Siegenthaler might never be a go-to contributor at the offensive end of the ice, but he has shown an ability to play responsibly in his own end with a level of maturity greater than his 23 years and two seasons of experience might suggest.  The Caps have a group of defensemen returning, or who could return, at roughly the same age (John Carlson and Michal Kempny at age 30; Dmitry Orlov, Nick Jensen, and Brenden Dillon at age 29).  Siegenthaler, along with Martin Fehervary, could be a critical element in keeping the defense fresh and effective as the Caps try to remain competitive over the next few years.

Grade: B

Photo: Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post

 

Washington Capitals: 2019-2020 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Dmitry Orlov

Dmitry Orlov

“The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.”
-- Niccolo Machiavelli

 

It does not seem all that long ago that Dmitry Orlov was a second round draft pick of the Washington Capitals, taken with the 55^th overall pick of the 2009 Entry Draft.  But here we are, 11 years later, and only John Carlson among active Caps defensemen have appeared in more regular season games for the team (757) than Orlov (516), and if Orlov continues to display the durability he has in his last five seasons (he has not missed a regular season game in that span), he will jump into the top-ten in franchise history in games played by a defenseman.

And just as Orlov had a typical year in dressing for every regular season game, he also had one in terms of his production numbers.  Four goals in 69 games was a goals per game average (0.06) in line with his career average (0.07), as were his assists (0.33/0.28), and points (0.39/0.35).

His 2019-2020 season, while reasonably consistent with his career numbers, suffered some from internal inconsistency.  He was very productive early on, going 3-19-22, plus-9 over his first five ten-game segments, but he was just 1-4-5, minus-4, over his last two segments covering 19 games.

Orlov also had some subtle differences in other statistics that hinted at some changes in his game.  He has seen a gradual reduction in his credited hits per 60 minutes over the past five seasons, from a career high 5.52 in 2015-2016 to 4.15 this season (about a half hit per 60 minutes lower than last season).  His blocked shots were down a bit as well, from 3.48 blocked shots per 60 minutes last season to 3.21 this season.  However, he did seem a bit more disciplined with the puck, although his giveaways remain high.  In four seasons before last year, his giveaways per 60 minutes never exceeded 2.00, but this year’s 2.54 was only marginally better than last year’s 2.70.  On the other hand, he did set a career high in takeaways per 60 minutes this season with 1.92.  There was also the matter of consistency.  In 2019-2020, Orlov had 53 shots on goal on home ice, 52 shots on goal on the road.  Two goals at home, two goals on the road.  A 3.8 shooting percentage at home, a 3.8 shooting percentage on the road.

Fearless’ Take…

At age 29, Dmitry Orlov is already tenth in career points among defensemen in Caps history (180) and should become the tenth defenseman to reach 200 career points with the team next season.  He could leapfrog Ken Klee into tenth place in career goals scored by a Caps defenseman next year (he needs six to tie).  He is already tenth in career assists by a defenseman; he is tied for sixth in career plus-minus among Caps defensemen (plus-61, with Karl Alzner).  The point here being that Orlov, a largely unheralded defenseman who has toiled in the shadows of John Carlson, Brooks Orpik, and even Alzner to a degree over the years, has quietly compiled a rather impressive resume for a franchise known over the years for producing very good defensemen.  And the 2019-2020 season was very much in line with the history that produced that resume.

Cheerless’ Take…

Dmitry is a minutes-eater as a defenseman (his 22:10 per game was second highest of his career), but eating that many minutes occasionally results in indigestion.  The Caps were 11-8-5 in the 24 games in which he skated more than 23 minutes.  And his offensive engagement was not as beneficial as his actual production.  Washington was just 16-12-3 in the 31 games in which he posted two or more shots on goal; 11-3-2 in the 16 games in which he did not record a shot on goal. 

Odd Orlov Fact… Orlov had a very odd fact with respect to his shooting.  He had 105 shots on goal in 69 games, an average of 1.52 shots on goal per game.  That is precisely the average he had in two of his previous three seasons (2016-2017 and 2017-2018).

Odd Orlov Fact II… Dmitry Orlov has never scored a playoff goal in a postseason in which the Caps did not win a Stanley Cup.  His only two career postseason goals came in 2018, when the Caps won the Cup.  He is 0-for-4 in the other four postseasons in which he participated.

Odd Orlov Fact III… This was the second straight season in which he did not record a goal against a Metropolitan Division opponent.  The last time he did score against a Metro opponent was April 1, 2018, when he lit the lamp against Pittsburgh.  In 54 divisional games since then, Orlov is 0-16-16, plus-2 (that’s no goals on 80 shots).

Game to Remember… November 29, 2019.  It would be hard to pick one or the other of games against the Tampa Bay Lightning a month apart for a game to remember for Dmitry Orlov.  In one, he had a goal and an assist, the goal being a game-winner, scored on his only shot on goal.  In the other, he had a goal and an assist, the goal being a game-winner, scored on his only shot on goal.  We set aside the latter, a 3-1 Caps win on December 21^st over the Lightning, in favor of the one on November 29^th against the same opponent. 

The Caps went into that game against Tampa Bay in a bit of a stagger, going 4-2-2 in their previous eight games, half of them decided in the Gimmick (the Caps splitting the four decisions).  Orlov was in a slump of his own, going without a point over that same eight-game stretch.  Things did not start well for either Orlov or the Caps, who found themselves in an 0-2 hole less than five minutes into the second period.  The teams exchanged goals before the end of the second period, setting up a better finish than one might have predicted for the Caps.  Jakub Vrana scored less than four minutes into the third period to get the Caps within a goal.  And then, with less than nine minutes left in regulation and the Caps on a power play, Orlov found himself manning the spot usually reserved for John Carlson as the power play was winding down.  He took a pass from Travis Boyd at the right point, and then he played a reasonably good fac simile of Carlson, teeing up Alex Ovechkin for a one-timer from the left wing circle that beat goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy cleanly on the short side to tie the game. 

That is how the teams went to overtime, and the matter was settled just over three minutes into the extra frame.  Evgeny Kuznetsov started the final sequence by easing back to his own blue line with the puck as the Caps swapped out the other two bodies on the 3-on-3.  He then fed the puck up to Orlov at the Tampa blue line.  He pushed defenseman Victor Hedman back as Tom Wilson made a bee-line for the net down the middle.  With the defensemen frozen and Vasilevskiy perhaps distracted by Wilson’s advance, Orlov snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy’s blocker on the short side, and the Caps had a 4-3 win.

Game to Forget… October 10, 2019.  The early season game in Nashville against the Predators might qualify as the Caps worst of the season.  The Caps had four leads in the game and gave all of them away.  They trailed only once, that being when Nashville scored the game-winning goal with less than five minutes left in regulation for a 6-5 win.  Dmitry Orlov had one of those games that inevitably happens, and not in a good way.  He was on ice for each of the Predators first three game-tying goals, and he would be on the ice for the Preds’ game-winner as well.  He did post an assist, three shots on goal, had two takeaways, a hit, and a blocked shot.  But he was on ice for four goals against, the most damage he witnessed firsthand all season.

Postseason…

Eight games, three points, no goals, minus-1.  What Orlov had – or more accurately, what he didn’t have…production – was something going around the Capitals’ locker room in the postseason.  Since Orlov scored the first goal in Game 4 of the 2018 Eastern Conference final against Tampa Bay, he has gone 23 postseason games without a goal (0-7-7, plus-1).

Looking Ahead…

Dmitry Orlov has three more years on his six-year/$30.6 million contract signed in June 2017. While the $5.1 million cap hit looks expensive, it does not look especially burdensome in a comparable group of defensemen (age 27-33, cap hit of $4.5 to $5.5 million).  What might be of some concern as Orlov embarks on the back half of his contract is that there have been hints of slight erosion in his numbers.  Leaving per-game averages aside, his point totals have dropped by two points in each of the last three years after posting 33 points in 2016-2017.  His shooting percentage has fallen more significantly.  Over a four-year period from 2013-2014 through 2017-2018, it was 6.8 percent.  Over the last two seasons it was 3.4 percent.

In the end…

The Caps seemed set up to have a solid top-four on defense this season with John Carlson and Michal Kempny as one pair, and Radko Gudas and Dmitry Orlov as another.  Things do not always turn out as planned, though.  Kempny was inconsistent coming off leg surgery, and Gudas did not fulfill his early season promise as a replacement for Matt Niskanen, for whom he was traded to the Caps by Philadelphia.  Orlov had a decent, even typical year, given his history, but the disappointments at other blue line positions diminished his results a bit. Nevertheless, the year he had should have come with little surprise.  After 500 career games with the Caps, there is some clarity about what he brings and what he brought in 2019-2020.

Grade: B

Photo: Claus Andersen/Getty Images

 

Washington Capitals: 2019-2020 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Michal Kempny

Michal Kempny

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
-- Marcus Aurelius

 

The quote attributed to Marcus Aurelius is usually applied to matters of psychic injury, not physical ones.  But hockey players, like any professional athletes, are high-performance, finely tuned individuals.  And when Michal Kempny suffered a severe torn hamstring injury in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in March 2019, an injury that required surgery and a long rehabilitation, it was reasonable to believe that he would be something less than full strength when he returned to the ice.  Rehab takes a player only so far, the rest coming by playing one’s self back to full strength. 

In fact, Kempny was held out of the first eight games of the 2019-2020 season and did not make his debut until October 18^th.  When he did return, he did so with gusto, posting points in eight of the first 11 games he played, going 3-8-11, plus-9, while averaging more than 19 minutes of ice time per game and helping the Caps to a 9-0-2 record in those games.

That would be a torrid pace for a completely healthy defenseman to maintain, and Kempny was not likely 100 percent.  Over his next 21 games he recorded only a pair of assists and tok a minus-1 rating.  The Caps still went 14-6-1 over those 21 games, but for Kempny it was still a matter of playing himself back to full health.  He broke out of that slump with points in three straight games in early January for the first time in two months, but he could not sustain that mini-run, either.  He finished the season 0-2-2 in his last 23 games, although he did post a plus-10 rating, suggesting his two-way game made strides.

Fearless’ Take…

Kempny has become a bit of an underrated offensive contributor.  Although he was coming back from a serious leg injury, his per-game production did not suffer much of a fall off from the 2018-2019 season.  Last season he averaged 0.08 goals per game compared to 0.05 this season, and his points slipped slightly, from 0.35 per game last season to 0.31 per game this season.

Cheerless’ Take…

Kempny did not have a goal in the last 53 games he played (on 68 shots on goal), none after October 25^th.  He had an odd home-road split, too.  He recorded nine points at home and nine on the road, but he was a plus-17 on the road, while he was just plus-2 on home ice.  He also had 20 penalty minutes on the road while taking only two in home games.

Odd Kempny Fact… Wheh Kempny got minutes, the Caps won.  In 33 games in which he skated at least 19 minutes, Washington was 26-5-2.  Fewer than 19 minutes, and the Caps were just 10-11-4. And the Caps were just 5-4-2 in the 11 games Kempny missed.

Odd Kempny Fact II… In his two full seasons in Washington, Kempny has fewer giveaways per 60 minutes (2.01/60 minutes) that any other Caps defenseman who has appeared in more than ten games with the exception of Radko Gudas (1.93/60 minutes).

Odd Kempny Fact III… Kempny is one of 11 defensemen in Caps history to play in at least 150 games (151), record at least 0.25 points per game (0.30), and post a rating of plus-40 or better (plus-44).

Game to Remember… November 1, 2019.  Sometimes the memories are of goals scored, and sometimes the memories are of helpers.  For Michal Kempny, it was the latter to open the month of November when the Caps hosted the Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena.  Washington buried the Sabres under an avalanche of goals in the first period, scoring four times over a span of less than five minutes to take a 4-0 lead.  Kempny assisted on the third goal, picking up the primary assist on Jakub Vrana’s second goal of the game.  Buffalo got one back mid-way through the second period, but late in the period Kempny hustled to keep a loose puck in the offensive end and fired a shot from the left point that Tom Wilson redirected past goalie Linus Ullmark to make it a 5-1 game.  Kempny recorded his third primary assist of the game in the third period when he took a drop pass from Alex Ovechkin just inside the Sabres’ blue line and fired the puck to the front of the net where T.J. Oshie was closing.  Oshie chipped the puck past Ullmark, and the Caps had their final margin in a 6-1 victory.  It was Kempny’s first three-point game as a Capital.

Game to Forget… December 16, 2019.  We are of a mind that for an NHL hockey team over the course of a regular season, there are 20 games it will win, no matter what, and 20 games it will lose, no matter what, leaving the remaining games to determine whether the season is successful or a bust.  When the Caps visited the Columbus Blue Jackets in mid-December, it appeared to be one of those games they were going to lose, no matter what.  The Blue Jackets were not especially dominating, but they cobbled together a goal by Eric Robinson in the first period and a pair of goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand in the third period to deal the Caps a 3-0 loss.  For Kempny’s part, he was on the ice for all three Columbus goals to earn him his only minus-3 rating of the season.  He finished with two shots on goal and a credited hit in 14:18 of ice time (his third lowest of the season) in what was a rather empty line on the score sheet.

Postseason…

Things started poorly for Michal Kempny in the postseason, got worse, and then got very quiet.  He had one point in the three-game round robin phase (an assist in the Caps’ lone win, a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins).  He then went without a point in Games 1 and 2 against the New York Islanders in the opening playoff round, posting a minus-3 in a 4-2 Game 1 loss.  His 19 minutes of ice time in Game 2 were his last minutes of the season; he was held out of the final three games of the series.

Looking Ahead…

Michal Kempny has two more years to run on his four-year/$10 million contract signed in June 2018.  He does not occupy a crowded cohort (cap hit of $2.0-$3.0 million, age 27-33), but he does compare favorably with the others in the group.  The difficulty is that he is in a crowded cohort on his own team.  Call it “The Uncertainty Group.”  The Caps have decisions to make with Brenden Dillon and Radko Gudas (pending unrestricted free agents), and even Nick Jensen, who is in the same age/cap hit cohort as Kempny, with three years left on his contract.

In the end…

Michal Kempny is a huge question mark heading into the off season.  Was his drop off a product of his being not fully recovered from a serious injury, or was the drop off a permanent regression in his level of play.  He came out of the 2018 Stanley Cup run being the darling of the trade-deadline acquisition crowd, the key final element that provided stability among the defensive pairs.  But this season was uneven in the extreme with respect to his performance, resulting in his being a healthy scratch late in the regular season and again as the Caps faced playoff elimination.  The Caps are going to be asked to make a bet on his returning to full health, and full production, next season.  Given the other question marks at the position, it might not be a bet they are willing to make and could look to move him elsewhere.  It is one of the story lines that bears watching in the weeks and months ahead.

Grade: B-

Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

 

Washington Capitals: 2019-2020 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Nick Jensen

Nick Jensen

“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”
-- Saint Francis de Sales

The TSN.ca scouting report on Washington Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen states among his assets, “is a solid puck-moving defenseman with outstanding speed and good defensive instincts. Can produce decent offensive totals at lower levels, too (let’s put a pin in that one for a moment).”  It concludes that his career potential is “speedy, puck moving defenseman.”  A lot of that might be interpreted as code, describing a defenseman of somewhat limited physical skills who gets by on smarts, guile, and playing angles.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, since the object of the exercise for one who plays “defense” is to keep the opponent from scoring.  How that gets done is of little practical importance, so long as the opponents are not successful scoring.

Looking at even strength situations alone, Jensen has some impressive numbers.  Most important, he was on ice for 0.040 even strength goals per even strength minute he was on the ice.  Only Jonas Siegenthaler among Caps defensemen had a lower number (0.034).  This might be explained away as a product of matchups, that Jensen, who skated primarily as a third pair defenseman, did not face the highest caliber of competition in terms of offense among opponents.  Nevertheless, Jensen played that role reasonably well, making up for an offensive part of his game that has not expressed itself much with the Caps.  Unsurprisingly, the Caps did better when Jensen skated in contests in which no even strength goals were scored when he was on the ice – 22-8-4 in those games, while the Caps were 19-11-4 in games in which Jensen was on ice for at least one even strength goal against.

One might conclude that Jensen’s ability to prevent (or avoid) unpleasantness in his own end would make his limited offensive contributions gravy for the club.  That was not necessarily so.  The Caps were 5-2-1 in the eight games in which he recorded a point; not bad, but not great, either. 

Fearless’ Take…

Nick Jensen turned not hitting into something of an art form in 2019-2020.  In 35 games in which he was not credited with a hit, the Caps were 24-6-5; they were 17-13-3 in the 33 games in which he was credited with at least one hit.  Blocking shots was another matter.  When he had at least one, the Caps were 30-8-5; when he did not have one, they were 11-11-3. 

Cheerless’ Take…

There have been 124 skaters who have come through the Caps organization who did not record a goal for the team.  None have played more games without doing so than Nick Jensen, who is still looking for his first goal as a Capital after 88 regular season games (next on the list is Bob Paradise, who did not score a goal in 70 games as a Capital). 

Odd Jensen Fact… Nick Jensen has not scored a goal since he potted a pair on October 11, 2018 for the Detroit Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs.  His streak of 145 regular season games without a goal (on 149 shots) is the longest current streak in the NHL. 

Odd Jensen Fact II… Jensen was one of 11 skaters in the NHL this season to skate more than 1,200 minutes, yet have fewer than four of those minutes be spent on power plays. 

Odd Jensen Fact III… Ten players in Caps history have appeared in at least 20 games without having scored a goal for the team.  Jensen is the only one to do so and have a positive plus-minus rating (plus-4).

Game to Remember… October 2, 2019.  On Opening Night of the 2019-2020 season, the Caps visited St. Louis as the foil for the Blues’ Stanley Cup banner raising celebration.  When the Blues scored in the first minute, and again seven minutes later to take a 2-0 lead, it looked as if it would be a happy night for Blues Nation.  The Caps halved the lead on an Alex Ovechkin goal late in the period, and that margin held up well into the second period, until the Caps went on a power play.  With just seconds left in the man advantage, and the Caps having put out a squad anticipating returning to even strength, Lars Eller won a faceoff to the right of goalie Jordan Binnington.  The puck came back to Nick Jensen at the left point, and he fed it across to his partner, Dmitry Orlov, for a one-timer from above the right wing circle that sailed over the glove of Binnington to tie the game, 2-2, with just seven seconds left on the man advantage.  Jensen earned the primary assist on the goal, his first (and only) power play point of the season, and his first power play point since November 15, 2017, when he had his first NHL power play point (an assist) for the Detroit Red Wings in an 8-2 win over the Calgary Flames. 

Game to Forget… October 10, 2019. Winning in Nashville is always a difficult chore for the Caps, and this season’s trip was no different.  The teams exchanged the first five goals of the game, the Caps taking a lead twice and the Predators tying the game twice before the Caps took a 3-2 lead midway through the second period.  The Caps added to that lead on an Alex Ovechkin goal, but Nashville tied the game on goals barely a minute apart early in the third period, goals for which Jensen was on ice.  The Caps regained the lead ten minutes into the final frame, but the hosts tied the game once more, then took the lead for a final time just 28 seconds after tying the game.  And Jensen was on ice for that goal as well.  He was on ice for three even strength goals against, his high for the season, as the Caps lost, 6-5.

Postseason…

Eight games, no points, a minus-1 rating.  None of that was surprising, but there was the odd circumstance of his posting only two shots on goal over his first five games (both of them in the opening game of the round robin against Tampa Bay), and then posting six shots on goal in the last three games of the opening round series loss to the New York Islanders.

Looking Ahead…

Nick Jensen has three years remaining on the four-year/$10.0 million contract he signed with the Caps in February 2019.  The cap hit is equal to that of teammate Michal Kempny, whose own four-year deal has two years to run.  The two are linked in odd ways, Jensen being the product of the Caps trying to catch the lightning in a bottle they enjoyed when they traded for Kempny the previous season (and who became an important element in the Caps’ Stanley Cup run).  Jensen, also obtained in trade, did not have the intended similar effect, but it is the comparison to Kempny that he might suffer from most.

In the end…

Nick Jensen had a quiet start to the 2019-2020 season, and that might be the charitable was of putting it (0-2-2, minus-10, in his first four ten-game installments).  His lack of production did not seem to matter, as the Caps compiled a 27-8-5 record over those four segments.  But things reversed themselves in the latter stages of the season, Jensen improving to 0-6-6, plus-11, over his last three segments, but the Caps going just 14-12-3 over that period.  It made for an odd season that many might not have taken much notice of, but Jensen seemed patient enough to let his game develop and was a solid performer as the season wound down.  Whether he can build on that is what will bear watching as he and the Caps move forward.

Grade: B-

Photo: Nick Wass/Associated Press

 

Washington Capitals: 2019-2020 By the Tens -- Defensemen: Radko Gudas

Radko Gudas

“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

 

One-for-one, player-for-player trades are not altogether common in the NHL.  Less so position-for-position.  Even less so such trades within a division between long-time rivals.  And right after the 2018-2019 season ended?  Those were the circumstances that converged on June 14, 2019, when the Caps traded defenseman Matt Niskanen to the Philadelphia Flyers, straight up, for defenseman Radko Gudas.  In the trade, the Caps got younger (Gudas was 29, Niskanen was 32), cheaper (Gudas had a cap hit of $3.35 million entering the last year of his contract; Niskanen carried a $5.75 million cap hit for two more seasons).  And there was evidence that Gudas’ underlying numbers were superior.  The trade looked pretty good from the Caps’ side of the exchange.

When Gudas opened the season with five assists and only two “minus” games in his first 15 games as a Cap, one could almost forget he was most recently a Flyer. But then, things started to slowly unravel.  He had one point (an assist) in his next dozen games and posted a minus-1 rating.  He did rebound to go 2-6-8, plus-11 in his next 18 games, but he was 0-1-1, minus-1 in ten games after that when his string of consecutive games in the lineup ended at 55 games, over which he was 2-13-15, plus-20.  Gudas dressed for only eight of the last 14 games of the regular season, going without a point and posting a minus-5 rating.

Fearless’ Take…

Gudas was another of those players who exhibited something of a “countercyclical” relationship with respect to ice time.  Not a particularly effective offensive contributor, he would not be in the lineup in games the Caps trailed.  On the other hand, he would be getting more minutes when the Caps were more successful, meaning the team’s 12-2-2 record when he logged 18 or more minutes was not surprising.  

Cheerless’ Take…

The deterioration of Gudas’ production over the course of the season was unfortunate, especially since the early part of the season made the trade for Niskanen look like a stroke of genius.  It took Gudas a while to record his first goal (he went his first 36 games without one), but he was still 1-11-12, plus-18, over his first four ten-game segments.  But he started slipping in the fifth segment (1-1-2, plus-4) and fell hard in the last two segments (0-1-1, minus-7).  Not even his underlying numbers (shot attempts-for at 5-on-5) could help much.  He was 51.7 percent in the 2019 portion of the season, 50.7 percent in the 2020 portion of the season).

Odd Gudas Fact… Gudas had a reputation of being a player who sometimes – well, often – strayed outside the lines of the rule book, or at least civil behavior on the ice.  With the Caps this season, though, that seem to be little of a liability.  Washington was 11-3-1 in the games in which he was charged with at least one penalty.

Odd Gudas Fact II… In a related vein, those 15 games in which he was charged with at least one penalty was a significant reduction from last season in Philadelphia, in which he was hit with penalties in 24 games (the Flyers were just 9-11-4 in those games).

Game to Remember… January 7, 2020.  The headlines after the Caps’ game against the Ottawa Senators on January 7^th would focus on Alex Ovechkin scoring a pair of goals to tie Teemu Selanne for 11^th place on the all-time goal scoring list, but the night at Capital One Arena belonged to Radko Gudas in one respect.  His moment came in the second period, with the game tied, 1-1.  Jakub Vrana dug the puck out of a scrum just inside the offensive blue line and fed it into the corner for T.J. Oshie, who tried to feed Michal Kempny pinching down into the right wing circle.  The pass was led too far for Kempny, but he tracked the puck down and fed it back to Evgeny Kuznetsov at the right point.  Walking the puck along the blue line to the middle, he fed Gudas for a one-timer from the top of the left-wing circle that beat goalie Craig Anderson cleanly to give the Caps a lead they would not relinquish on their way to a 6-1 win.  It was Gudas’ first (and only) game-winning goal with the Caps and his first game-winner since the 2015-2016 season with the Flyers, ending a streak of 270 games without one.

Game to Forget… March 4, 2020.  Players traded away always like to come back and make a point that they might have made a mistake in letting them go.  For Radko Gudas, though, facing his previous employer had not been anything to put in the scrapbook.  In three games against the Flyers he had yet to record a point, had an “even” rating, had (oddly enough) yet to record a penalty minute, and managed only two blocked shots in averaging about 18 minutes a game.  The fourth and final meeting of the regular season did not go any better.  After the Caps took a 1-0 lead to the first intermission on a goal by Lars Eller, the Flyers scored three goals in a span of ten minutes in the second period to take a 3-1 lead.  Gudas was on ice for each of the three goals in a span of four shifts that he skated.  He did not record a shot attempt and finished minus-2 in 12:24 of ice time (his third lowest of the season), leaving him 0-0-0, minus-2, averaging 16:27 a game against his former team.

Postseason…

Gudas’ participation in the postseason was sporadic.  He appeared in two of the three round robin games, posting an assist in each, losses to Tampa Bay and the Flyers.  He dressed for three of the five games in the opening round loss to the Islanders, going without a point and posting a minus-1 rating to go along with one shot on goal while averaging 15:39 in ice time.  It continued what has been a more or less disappointing experience in the postseason for Gudas, who wrapped up his season having yet to score a goal and posting three assists with a minus-5 rating in 20 playoff games in his career.

Looking Ahead…

Radko Gudas now heads into unrestricted free agency, his first opportunity to do so.  He finds himself in a potentially difficult situation of a season in which his numbers deteriorated over time to such an extent he was a scratch almost as often as he received a sweater, and teams will be trying to manage under a flat cap for the 2020-2021 season, if and when it starts.  He is in a position similar to teammate Brenden Dillon – unrestricted free agents of roughly the same age (Gudas is 30, Dillon 29), similar cap hits in their final contract year (Gudas: $3.35 million; Dillon: $3.27 million), and with similar reputations as defensive/physical defensemen with limited offensive upside.  The Caps almost certainly will not keep both, and they might not keep either, but if a choice is to be made, it would not be surprising to see the Caps re-sign Dillon before re-signing Gudas.

In the end…

In some respects, Gudas was the player one might have expected, and in others he was not.  His goals/assists/points per game with the Caps (0.03/0.21/0.24) closely resembled what he posted for the Flyers last season 90.05/0.21/0.26) and with Philadelphia the previous season (0.03/0.20/0.23).  In fact, his season with the Caps looked a lot like his three years with Tampa Bay to open his career (0.06/0.20/0.25; amounts do not sum due to rounding) and his four years overall with the Flyers (0.06/0.19/0.25).  But this season was the fourth consecutive season he experienced a drop in penalty minute per game.  From 1.53 with the Flyers in 2015-2016, he dropped to 1.39, 1.19, and 0.82 last season before posting 0.63 penalty minutes per game with the Caps this season.  His game appears to have mellowed over the years, and his season with the Caps faltered considerably after a promising start.  It might not be the best of profiles to carry into unrestricted free agency after what seems destined to be his only season with the Capitals.

Grade: C+

Photo: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images