Stars and Sticks
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Washington Capitals: New Additions Impact in First Week

By David Trice

UNIONDALE, NY - OCTOBER 04: Washington Capitals Left Wing Brendan Leipsic (28) controls the puck with New York Islanders Center Derick Brassard (10) defending during the first period of the game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders on October 4, 2019, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NY - OCTOBER 04: Washington Capitals Left Wing Brendan Leipsic (28) controls the puck with New York Islanders Center Derick Brassard (10) defending during the first period of the game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders on October 4, 2019, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Radko Gudas

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 08: Radek Faksa #12 of the Dallas Stars and Radko Gudas #33 of the Washington Capitals collide in the first period at Capital One Arena on October 8, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 08: Radek Faksa #12 of the Dallas Stars and Radko Gudas #33 of the Washington Capitals collide in the first period at Capital One Arena on October 8, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) /

When you add a player like Radko Gudas, you expect to get a defenseman who will chip in some offensively. But for the most part he would be counted on to be the steady defensive presence on a pair. For the Capitals, he was looked to fill the hole left by Brooks Orpik and would be expected to mentor younger players like Jonas Siegenthaler and Tyler Lewington.

So far Gudas has not been very lucky in providing the defense that he was anticipated to provide, he has been on ice for at least one goal  in each game except in the contest against the Hurricanes. For the one goal allowed in the Islanders game, the puck got through IIya Samsonov by way of Gudas’s skate.

Gudas seems to be late in entering the zone on a regular basis. But he has jumped into the fray offensively with a couple of good zone entry passes to create good scoring opportunities for Vrana vs. the Islanders and Oshie vs the Hurricanes which led to goals.

He hasn’t been afraid to put pucks on net himself either, with seven shots so far this year. Gudas has added two takeaways but sadly has given the puck away four times.  He has added five hits and three blocked shots.

So far I would say Gudas has had an uneven start to the season, I would chalk this up to the adjustment period to the new environment. I would expect Gudas to start making the kind of contributions we have been looking forward to seeing soon. It could be he will need to get his feel by dropping the gloves.

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