Report Card: John Erskine

As the 2011-12 season has come to a close, the time has come to evaluate what it meant for the Capitals, both as a team and as individuals.  As such, as the summer progresses, I will be writing a report card, or individual evaluation, for each player who played in 9 (~10%) of the team's games, or 4 playoff games. Next up is rough and tumble defenseman John Erskine, who completed his sixth, and most frustrating, season in the Capitals organization this year.

Season Summary: During this campaign, Erskine suffered through by far the most turbulent season in a Capitals uniform.  After being injured at the start of the year, he was in and out of the lineup for a prolonged period before finally being yanked for basically the remainder of the regular season in early February. Overall, Erskine posted zero goals, two assists, a plus-three rating, and 51 penalty minutes in 28 games, the second fewest he has ever played at the NHL level.  Erskine also had the sixth-best even strength corsi rating among Capitals defensemen (-5.07) who played more than 20 games, and he did it against the second-easiest competition on the team. Grade: C-
Role Play: John Erskine is a guy who is on your team to hit people and clear out the front of the net.  He's not offensively gifted, he's not a shot blocker.  He's a low-end sixth defenseman/healthy scratch.  That's what he was this year.  When Erskine was in the lineup, he was physical, he was mean, and he was tough.  He cleared people out in front of the net and he hit people.  But that's what is expected of him, and it's not particularly valuable to this team, or any team, really. Nevertheless, he did what many people pegged him for heading in to this season, which was, quite frankly, not much. Grade: C+
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