Washington Capitals: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Oshie

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Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Hello everyone! Welcome to the first ever Stars And Sticks Washington Capitals mailbag! In this new segment, I take questions about the Washington Capitals (and other fun things) that were either tweeted at me or emailed to me and I answer them to the best of my ability.

Washington Capitals Mailbag: Ovechkin

Our first question comes from Harrison from Twitter.

@BmoreDaveS what's an ovechkin
— Harrison Lee 🇰🇷 (@HLLivingLoco) August 4, 2015

That sir is an excellent question. What is an “Ovechkin”? An Ovechkin is a living thing that plays for the Washington Capitals. He has the appearance of a human, but he has admitted that he is actually a machine. No one knows who created him, but he was created to score goals better than everybody else.

Ovechkin’s natural habitat is the ice. However, when Ovechkin is not on the ice, he is often found partying with celebrities, especially Justin Bieber.

While Ovechkin is often criticized by haters, they’re just jealous and wish that they were half as good at what they do as Ovechkin is at what he does.

Our next question comes from Peter for Delaware.

Is 50 goals still realistic for Ovechkin?

Peter, I firmly believe that 50 goals this season will be a goal for the Washington Capitals captain, and it’ll be a goal that he’ll meet. The prime of goal scorers can be a bit hard to figure out. They usually start declining by the age of 30, but so far, Alex Ovechkin shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. Until he starts slowing down, Ovechkin will remain a threat to score 50 goals in any given season. I’m not going to doubt the omnipotence of Ovechkin until he gives me a reason to do so. Going into his tenth season, I can’t see a single reason to doubt the Washington Capitals captain.

Next: O-shie Can You See?

Mandatory Credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports

Washington Capitals Mailbag: Oshie

Our next Washington Capitals mailbag question comes from John from Twitter.

@Stars_AndSticks #Capsmailbag Is 70+ for Oshie realistic if he clicks with 8 and 19 + power play time?
— Lysander (@johnherold98) August 5, 2015

I don’t think that T.J. Oshie will score 70+ points for the Washington Capitals this season, even with getting first line minutes with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Probably the biggest reason is that the first line will most likely be deployed as more of a shutdown line (with obvious scoring potential). Facing the toughest minutes on the team isn’t good for his chances.

MORE FROM STARS AND STICKS: Oshie A Great Fit For Washington Capitals

Oshie’s career high is 60 points (back in 2013-2014). While he will make the first line much better and allow it to be deployed as a shutdown line, 70+ points in 2015 is not that realistic for Oshie.

Also, I’m not sure exactly how much power play time Oshie will get for the Washington Capitals. He’ll definitely be used, but at the same time, he’s probably going to be an important part of the Caps penalty kill. How much he is used on the power play will likely be determined by the effectiveness of Tom Wilson and Justin Williams. Both could fill the same role that Oshie would fill: Troy Brouwer‘s.

However, with that said, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Oshie scored 70+ points for the Washington Capitals. If he gets a ton of secondary assists, it’s definitely possible. While Oshie has never scored 70+ points in a season, he has never played with the kind of talent that the Washington Capitals have. With all due respect to David Backes and Alexander Steen (who are excellent players), they are not the offensive juggernauts that Ovechkin and Backstrom are. He’ll stand a better chance at getting 70 points if he is utilized on the Caps first power play unit.

Washington Capitals fans need to realize that Oshie’s value will far exceed what is shown on the score sheet, even if he does manage to get over 70 points.

Next: Kuznetsov's Ceiling

Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Washington Capitals Mailbag: Kuznetsov

Our next Washington Capitals mailbag question comes from Rob!

I’m really excited about Kuzy! What do you think his ceiling as a player and who do you think that ceiling will resemble?

I think Evgeny Kuznetsov is primed to have a breakout season in 2015-2016. The development that he made to his overall game for the Washington Capitals in 2014-2015 was outstanding. He went from being largely a two trick pony to showing signs of being a complete player. His creativity and hockey IQ gives him an incredible upside. He showed both of those in his game winning goal in Game Seven against the Islanders.

The Washington Capitals needed a lift and Kuzy gave it to them. That’s the kind of veteran play that you’d expect from a seasoned veteran. Excellent awareness by the Washington Capitals center to see the opening across the ice, go after it, wait until Jaroslav Halak was on the ground and finish hard. If he fails to do any one of those things with no hesitation, that goal doesn’t happen.

Kuznetsov’s ceiling is a two-way center who does ridiculous things on offense. That’s also a brief description of a fellow Russian center: Pavel Datsyuk. Do I think Kuznetsov will be THAT good defensively? Probably not. However, he’s quickly improving and Kuznetsov has insane puck handling skills, just like Datsyuk. I think that’s a reasonable comparison.

Next: Please Forgive Me, I'm Coveting

Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Washington Capitals Mailbag: Dream Team

Our next question comes from Bill from Arlington!

Hey Dave. I’ve noticed that you’re a huge hockey fan and I love how you evaluate players past what they do on the score sheet. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on something. My co-workers and I had a lunch time discussion about the best players in the NHL. If you could add three players from other teams to the Washington Capitals (ignore cap issues), who would they be and why?

Oh wow, that’s an excellent question Bill. So many different ways I could go with this question. Do I grab guys who can help the Washington Capitals win now? Or do I build for the future? I think I’ll go with the first option because that’s more fun.

The Washington Capitals have a pretty deep team. They have three kind of weaknesses that I’d like to cover. The first concern is that other than Backstrom, they don’t really have anyone who’s an above average shutdown line center. The kind of center you could throw out there against anyone. I’d love for the Washington Capitals to add one. I narrowed my list down to three guys: Patrice Bergeron, Joe Thornton and Anze Kopitar.

Out of those three guys, give me Bergeron. It’s incredible how much better the Bruins are with him on the ice and how much better he makes his teammates. He was born to play for Barry Trotz. The next concern on my list: who’s replacing Mike Green? I love Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt, but they’re not replacing Green this season. I’d like to fix that.

So who could replace Green’s production? I’ll go with Erik Karlsson. He faces tough competition and lots of minutes. Despite that, he manages to make everyone look absolutely silly. Giving him sheltered minutes would be like only using Datsyuk for shootouts, so I’d give Karlsson first pairing minutes. That would open things up for John Carlson and Matt Niskanen. Plus, a power play featuring Ovechkin and Karlsson would be unfair. Honorable mentions include Duncan Keith, Justin Faulk, P.K. Subban and Drew Doughty. Karlsson is the most productive of those guys, so I’ll go with him.

My final concern that’s not really one: a shutdown wing to pair with Bergeron and Oshie (I’d have Backstrom and Williams with Ovi). Basically form the best shutdown line in the NHL and allow Ovi and Backstrom to destroy inferior competition. This boils down to the impossible decision of choosing between Brad Marchand and Nikita Kucherov.

I’ll go with Marchand, but I’d love to have Kucherov as well. Marchand has chemistry with Bergeron. I loathe Marchand because he’s a pest (a darn good one at that), but Washington Capitals fans would quickly warm up to him. He’s incredibly underrated because people think he’s just a pest. They couldn’t be more wrong. He and Bergeron form the best shutdown line in the NHL bar none. He annoys you and then scores on you. Double Whammy!

An underrated part of having Marchand and Bergeron: Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky and Tom Wilson could easily be sheltered with offensive zone starts. Basically, it makes everyone’s life easier.

Quickly, here’s who I’d add if I wanted to build for future and possibly extend the opening of the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup window. I’d add Aaron Ekblad, Filip Forsberg and Connor McDavid.

That was fun! Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and to tweet me (@BmoreDaveS or @Stars_AndSticks) with #CapsMailbag and your question if you’d like to be featured next time!

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