Washington Capitals: Travis Boyd’s 2018-19 Final Grade

Only four more players who played a significant number of games for the Washington Capitals last season are left to grade. Travis Boyd, you’re up.

The 2018-19 Washington Capitals entered opening night with their primary roster not in full strength. Travis Boyd, a young fourth-liner who was locked in to a two-year bridge deal worth $1.6 million over the summer after the Stanley Cup hoopla, was only on the ice for the banner ceremony but not the game.

Boyd suffered a lower-body injury to his left foot from blocking a shot in Washington’s preseason game on September 26, 2018 in St. Louis. Coach Todd Reirden placed Boyd on long-term injured reserve and at the end of October was medically cleared to be sent to Hershey on a conditioning stint.

Boyd appeared in two games and recorded an assist and it was a welcome reunion for Bears fans. Prior to getting called up to Washington during the homestretch of the 2018 Cup run, Boyd had a 47-point season (15 goals, 32 assists) in 61 games and even had a four-goal game against Laval that was dedicated to his daughter after she spent a week in the hospital.

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Boyd’s first appearance last season came on Nov. 5 in a game against the Edmonton Oilers and Boyd led the charge on the fourth line with two assists on goals from Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly to open the scoring. The Capitals went on to win 4-2.

He struggled to adapt back to the NHL for the remainder of November since that game but that’s also from readjusting to skating after just injuring his foot. He had a great stretch from Dec. 8-14, lighting the lamp in three straight games. That included his first NHL goal which came in Columbus.

Boyd finished with five goals, 15 assists and 20 points in 53 games but was inconsistent in spurts. This isn’t enterely on Boyd himself but more so on a struggling fourth line that was shuffled from time to time.

Reirden scratched Boyd from the lineup at times but fresh after the team traded for Carl Hagelin, Boyd had a three-point streak in early March and even a game-winning goal in a home win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

In the playoffs, Boyd only appeared in Game 4 in an eventual loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Other than that, Boyd was scratched for the other six games with Reirden opting to go with Chandler Stephenson. Don’t really want to say this but who knows what could’ve happened in that series with Boyd’s speed and face-off dot wizardry in the lineup?

Grade B-: Boyd showed what he could do on the offensive end when he’s on fire which puts him above the C-curve compared to the previous season. The only real downside was that Boyd’s face-off success regressed.

Boyd finished at 50% on the dot in 2017-18, sixth on the team. If we’re speaking fourth line terms, Boyd was second to Jay Beagle (the mastermind of face-offs in the NHL) and Stephenson was mostly a third liner. Boyd’s percentage dropped to 36.2% in 2018-19. While he’s not a Beagle, another factor into this was Nic Dowd establishing himself as a mainstay at center.

It’ll be a welcome sign for Washington having Boyd back for at least one more season. He enters the next year as a restricted free agent. The fact that he’s versatile and can play both winger and center will serve as insurance should Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller or Dowd suffer an injury. Versatility is a key in a game that only gets faster.