Washington Capitals Stars Of The Week: 10/13 – 10/20
It was a week that started terribly to put it bluntly.
A pretty good thumping by the Colorado Avalanche started us off, but the Washington Capitals recovered and had a good week going 3-1-0. Win or lose there will be performances by players to be noticed, most of the time anyways, and this week was no different. Lets dive right into it, here are our stars of the week.
Just a reminder, the way we give out our stars of the week we look at several things. Traditional stats, like goals and points. Advanced stats like Corsi%. And finally the eye test. Who caught your eye more often than not. If you can hit all three you have a no doubter star of the week.
With that being said, here we go.
John Carlson
He was one of our stars of the week last week and if he keeps doing what he’s doing right now he’ll be on our list frequently. John Carlson has 18 points in his teams first ten games. The great Bobby Orr has done that twice. That’s pretty good company to join.
This week Carlson scored eight points, seven of those being assists. That’s two weeks in a row now that Carlson has averaged over two points per game. I’m not really a fan of talking about awards early in the season, but Carlson is the runaway favorite for the Norris Trophy right now. Still a long ways to go to get there however.
His advanced stats weren’t very good. His Corsi% was a poor 45.34% and his scoring chance for% was 44.87%. Neither very good. However with the historic numbers he’s putting up it would be pretty ridiculous to not have John Carlson as a star of the week.
T.J. Oshie
I’ve been calling T.J. Oshie the invisible superstar recently. Every night he’s not very noticeable. I don’t see him and his line creating a ton of chances, they don’t seem to give up a ton of chances. They’re just playing, a very unnoticeable kind of game. Yet every game Oshie seems to end up getting a goal.
This week, while still being quiet, Oshie was able to put up five points, four of those were goals. Oshie is up to seven goals on the season on 22 shots. That’s a 31.8 shooting percentage. His career high coming into the season was 23.1 back in the 2016-17 season. I wouldn’t expect that percentage to stay this high but it’s definitely impressive and I think needs to be mentioned
His advanced stats were pretty average. That possibly explaining why you don’t see him very often during games. His Corsi% was 49.61% and the scoring chance percentage was 53.33%. The scoring chance percentage is good but you have to point out with Oshie on the ice the Capitals had just four more scoring chances than their opponents.
Another couple of numbers to point out. Oshie finished second on the team this week in individual scoring chances with 13 (We’ll get to first place in a minute). He also finished second in individual high danger attempts for with nine.
You can be invisible all you want. If you keep putting up goals and points the way Oshie is right now you’re going to be helping your team out a ton. You also get to be one of our stars of the week. Congrats Mr. Oshie, try to find an honor bigger than this one, I. Dare. You!
Alex Ovechkin
Maybe there is another guy that deserves to be on this list more and might not get an opportunity later. We’ll get to him in a bit though. The reason Alex Ovechkin once again cracks our top three is some of the numbers he put up were a bit ridiculous. Especially considering I’m not sure it was Ovechkin or his lines best week.
Ovechkin put up five points in the four games played this week, two of those points were goals. Whatever. Points are points and goals are goals, Ovechkin will be putting those up all season. (That’s called taking something for granted, don’t do that.)
The reason Ovechkin is on the list is a different number. We mentioned Oshie was second on the team in individual scoring chances with 13. He was behind only Ovechkin who had….27. Ovechkin also unsurprisingly lead the team in this exact stat last week but to compare, in the three games last week Ovechkin led the team with 8 individual scoring chances. 27 scoring chances in 4 games I found shocking.
Ovechkin also led the team in high danger attempts for with 11.
His Corsi% was 51.01%, somewhat good. His scoring chance percentage however was 62.50%. While on the ice the Capitals had 45 scoring chances behind only Dmitry Orlov who had 50.
Might not have been his best week but the numbers say he did enough anyways. For that reason Ovechkin makes our stars of the week for the third straight week.
I think an honorable mentioned should go to Carl Hagelin this week. Depth scoring is something I’ve been concerned about this season and Hagelin is a part of that depth. He started the season a little rough going seven games without a point. In the last three games he has 4 points, all assists and three of those assists were primaries.
His four points are more than guys like Nicklas Backstrom, Lars Eller, Jakub Vrana and Tom Wilson. If it wasn’t for Ovechkin putting up some stupid impressive numbers I think Hagelin would have made the top three.
Another week is in the books. Have anyone else you’d put in your stars of the week?