Washington Capitals Report Card: Michal Kempny
If Michal Kempny’s impact to the Washington Capitals wasn’t known before, it certainly was as he sat in the press box, nursing a torn left hamstring.
Before Michal Kempny’s injury, which happened on March 20 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Washington Capitals defense corps were buzzing. Everyone’s roles had been set into place nicely with a deadline acquisition of Nick Jensen.
Michal Kempny and John Carlson made an excellent top pairing, and the addition of Jensen allowed Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen to not play top-line minutes anymore. The results were nothing short of spectacular.
Carlson and Kempny ranked fifth and seventh on the team, respectively, with Corsi-For percentages of 62.42 and 59.82. With the top-pairing rolling, Niskanen and Orlov were eighth and ninth with percentages just a shade under and over 59, respectively.
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After Kempny’s injury, though, the defense corps, and the rest of the team, fell into flux. It was on display throughout the first round.
Carlson’s Corsi percentage dropped to 46.94 percent. Orlov was 50 percent and Niskanen fell below 50 percent — about a 10 percent drop.
Because of Kempny’s injury, the rest of the defense had to play new roles: Carlson had a new partner for the stretch run and the playoffs, Niskanen and Orlov had to take on tougher minutes and pretty clearly failed at that and the third pairing constantly had new pairings, too.
It would be easy to grade Kempny as a pairing with Carlson, because there’s no signs to the contrary that the two won’t be attached at the hip until the Kempny’s contract runs out in three years. But it’s clear that Kempny, while certainly not one of the team’s studs on paper, is one of the most crucial players on the team.
He played in 71 games in the 2018-19 season, scored six goals and 19 assists and averaged 19:11 minutes of time on ice per game. All of those numbers are career highs.
His relative Corsi percentage was 2.1, the second highest of his career and the highest since his rookie year in 2016-17. Note: these numbers were compiled via Natural Stat Trick.
Grade: A-: Admittedly, there’s some hindsight bias here. Michal Kempny’s impact wasn’t fully realized until he found his way in the press box, but it’s not as if the Washington Capitals were sending out completely overmatched, non-NHL players in his place.
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He was tied for the Capitals third-highest scoring defenseman in 71 games played, tied with Matt Niskanen (who played in 80 game