Oates Hired; Trade Marcus Johansson?

Check out my latest two articles for RtR:

Adam Oates is the new head coach of the Capitals.  What does it mean?  Read here.

Should the Capitals trade Marcus Johansson?  Read here.

Capitals Go American

Read my latest for RtR - a Saturday column on the Caps' American infusion at the 2012 Draft.  Read the article here.

Capitals Run Pittsburgh

Read my latest for RtR, in which I recap what was an excellent first night for the Capitals at the 2012 Draft.  Read the article here.

Report Card: Alex Ovechkin

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.  The final player to be evaluated is winger Alex Ovechkin, who finished his 7th NHL season, all with the Capitals, on this past campaign.

Season Summary: Coming off the worst statistical season of his career on 2010-11, Ovechkin only got worse in 2011-12.  In 78 games played, Ovechkin complied 38 goals (2nd lowest of his career), 65 points (lowest of career), a minus-eight rating (2nd lowest of career) and took 303 shots (lowest of his career).  In addition, unlike past years, Ovechkin struggled to find any sort of consistency in his game, and his scoring totals were boosted by two big hot streaks at the turn of the New Year and in late March, respectively.  His 65 points still led the team, but if Nicklas Backstrom had been healthy the whole season, they would not have, and it took Ovechkin about a month to catch Backstrom in points after Nicky went down.  Even more concerning was Ovechkin's dropoff in corsi rating, especially because in 2010-11 his corsi was still high despite career low offensive output.  This year, the Russian winger's puck possession level plummeted to -4.78 (from +11) - which was 8th on the team among 13 forwards that played 40 or more games.  Ovechkin also did all of this against relatively weak competition - not only relative to that of his fellow forwards (3rd easiest minutes) but compared to last season. Yikes. Grade: C
Role Play: Following his down year two seasons ago, I was in a majority of people who expected Ovechkin to return to form this past year.  Boy, was I wrong.  Ovechkin never got in to a consistent scoring rhythm, did not even come close to a point per game for the first time in his career, and was awful defensively basically the entire season.  Sure, he had those "oh wow" moments - Chicago comes to mind - and he likely always will, but that is not enough.  For a player with the captaincy of a franchise and the highest annual salary cap hit in the National Hockey League (for another nine years), I expect a lot more than 65 points, little defense, and bad positional play.  Ovechkin's leadership was again called into question by some, as well - and fair or not, I don't think a great captain's leadership would be as questioned as often as Ovechkin's is.  In short: much was expected from "The Great Eight" this year; he failed to deliver. Grade: C-

Report Card: Nicklas Backstrom

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 center Nicklas Backstrom, who finished his fifth NHL season, all with the Capitals, on this past year's campaign.

Season Summary: Marred by a concussion that caused him to miss 40 games between early January and late March, Backstrom's 2011-12 campaign was very good nonetheless.  Playing in 42 games, Backstrom was the only Capital to average more than a point per game and led the team in scoring for more than a month after he was hurt on January 3rd - it took Alex Ovechkin that long to catch him.  All told, the Swedish pivot had 14 goals, 30 assists, 24 penalty minutes, and a minus-four rating.  The bad rating was fueled by the fact that he was both unlucky (PDO of 986, fourth worst among Capitals forwards), and the fact that Capitals goaltenders only had a .900 save percentage when he was on the ice (second worst among forwards).  Backstrom was also one of only five Washington forwards to have a positive corsi rating for puck possession at 3.76, though he did it against very soft minutes. Grade: A-
Role Play: Coming off a very poor (by his standards) 2010-11, Backstrom was the Capitals' best player when he was healthy, producing steadily offensively and playing reliable defense as Washington's only above-average center.  His injury was obviously a huge loss for the Capitals, and with him out of the lineup, the team struggled mightily, but it't not in any way his fault that Rene Bourque decided to behead him.  In short, when he was able to lace them up, Nicky was a monster, which is what I expected - he's too good a player to be as average as he was two seasons ago. Grade: A