Washington Capitals power play misses D John Carlson
As the end of the season approaches, several concerns are beginning to emerge for the Washington Capitals. One of them revolves around the man advantage. Despite having the top ranked power play at 23.8%, there is very obviously something lacking. As the percentage shows, it isn’t necessarily that they aren’t converting – it is that they have to potential to do so much more.
I know what you’re thinking. Of course the team misses their top defenseman. This is obvious, and there is no debate. But it goes deeper than that.
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With Alex Ovechkin in his office at the faceoff dot, Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson trading passes to open up lanes, T.J. Oshie in the slot and Matt Niskanen at the point, it is the probably the most threatening man advantage in the league.
With that, it just seems incredibly underwhelming at times. Strangely enough, they are still operating at 25% in the month of March. So how will they manage to get even better when they will need it in the playoffs?
Getting a healthy John Carlson back would be a great start.
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Right now, the Washington Capitals have Matt Niskanen playing big time minutes on the man advantage in Carlson’s place. Dmitry Orlov is getting some time with the second unit as well.
According to Hockey Reference, Niskanen is thriving with his extra time. The 9.9 goals for per 60 minutes of ice time for Washington with Niskanen on the ice on the man advantage is the highest on the team (Karl Alzner’s is higher, but he plays an average of three seconds on the PP per game, so we won’t count him). Really, Niskanen has emerged as arguably the Washington Capitals’ best defenseman at this time in Carlson’s absence.
The perceived problem with the power play lies with Dmitry Orlov, who’s presence contributes to just 2.9 GF/60 on the power play. He doesn’t get nearly the same amount of PP time as Carlson or Niskanen do, granted. So from a bigger perspective, the following isn’t really Orlov’s fault.
There are two things that go hand in hand that are likely holding Orlov back – the setup of the Caps’ power play and the fact that he is left handed. The problem within was on full display last night when Orlov struggled, on several occasions, to keep the puck in the zone along the boards on his backhand. This isn’t a slight against Orlov – it is just physically harder to perform this task on your off hand.
Referring back, the team’s GF/60 with Carlson on the power play is 8.0. You can see that this is a huge, huge difference. With either him or Niskanen at the point, the capability of either power play unit grows by a ton.
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When Alex Ovechkin misses a screaming one timer wide, it benefits the team to have a right handed defenseman that can hold the line on that side of the ice. This is just how the Washington Capitals PP is designed, and that isn’t going to change. It is the same reason that when someone, such as Backstrom, shoots, Ovechkin has a hard time keeping the puck in on his own backhand.
This is probably another reason why it would benefit the Washington Capitals to have another offensively capable right handed defenseman that could be a power play specialist, but that is not possible at this point. The only time that this type of need would arise is when one of Carlson or Niskanen are out of the lineup, anyway.
Even when Carlson returned from his first injury this season, the power play struggled. However, Carlson’s game struggled as a whole in that first stint back. This is likely due to the fact that he was not 100%, leading him to sit out again after undergoing a procedure on a lower body injury. I have a feeling that it will be much different this time around.
Luckily for the Washington Capitals, they will get their man back sooner rather than later. He will likely get a good chunk of game time when he returns before the playoffs begin.
It is absolutely crucial to this team’s success, power play or not, for John Carlson to be at 100% upon his return.