Washington Capitals Stars Of The Week: 12/29 – 1/5
It’s time for another Stars of the Week, Washington Capitals fans!
The week started out rough with another loss to a team that you have to consider a threat the New York Islanders. The Capitals rebounded and did so in an impressive way by beating the rival Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh then beating the San Jose Sharks in a historic way on Sunday afternoon.
It was an easier week to pick stars of the week. Even the loss to the Islanders was a fairly good performance. There were several players I noticed a lot and there were a couple of Caps who put up good stats and numbers at the same time.
I don’t care to waste too much more of your time, so lets just get right to it shall we.
Evgeny Kuznetsov
I tend to think a deep Capitals playoff run depends on Kuznetsov possibly more than any other player on this team, maybe he’s behind the goaltenders in that but he’s not far behind. If Kuznetsov is going there are not many teams that can stop the Capitals. If he’s floating this team becomes a lot easier to beat.
This week, I thought Kuznetsov was very good. He had five points in the three games this week and all five of those points were primary points. He had three goals and two primary assists.
His advanced stats weren’t that good. Most of his numbers this past week we’re below average to be frank, but in my eyes he was still very noticeable.
His Corsi% was 49.44%, that’s below 50% obviously, but he had 44 shot attempts for and 45 against, so with one more shot attempt and he’s at 50%.
Kuznetsov also had 23 scoring chances for and 23 chances against. That equals a 50% rating in that stat as well. While on the ice the Caps had 11 high danger chances for and 9 high danger chances against. His 55% rating was fourth on the team this week.
Kuznetsov also had five individual scoring chances, that was fifth on the team this week. He drew three penalties this week, that was a team best. Finally he was 50% at face-offs this week. Kuznetsov has never really been the best at the dot so being at 50% for a week is pretty good for him.
While his advanced stats don’t scream stars of the week material he was very noticeable, at least to me and he put up the numbers worthy of being one of our stars of the week. Lets hope for many more from number 92.
Lars Eller
We’ve talked about the Capitals second line center, should we just keep going down the middle? Why, yes. Yes we should. Thanks to Eller having another strong week for the Capitals that is just what we will do.
Eller this week tied for second on the team in scoring with four points. The reason Eller gets the nod is he was more noticeable than T.J. Oshie (who he tied with) I thought, and all of his points, like Kuznetsov, were primary points. Eller had two goals and two primary assists.
Eller’s advanced stats were up and down this week. His shots attempts percentage was a solid 54.17%, while on the ice the Caps had 39 attempts for and 33 against. However, while on the ice the Caps were getting more chances against than for. With Eller on the ice the Capitals got 16 chances for and 16 against. The thing to know here is Washington had just one high danger attempt for with Eller on the ice and eight against. Eller and his linemates will have to seal up the middle of the ice better next week and beyond.
Eller did lead the Capitals in individual scoring chances this week with 10. Second place was both Tom Wilson and Jakub Vrana with nine.
Eller has honestly been one of the most consistent Capitals all season in my opinion. If he can help get the third line going more often this Capitals team will be very hard to beat. But, we don’t worry about the future here too much. We worry about the recent past. And the recent past says Lars Eller was very good and deserves to be one of our stars of the week.
Jakub Vrana
Vrana just went through a pretty good slump. After a good start to the season, scoring goals and being on pace to score nearly forty goals Vrana then went scoreless in ten straight games. He broke that slump on Friday vs the Hurricanes then scored two against the Sharks on Sunday afternoons game.
His three points were tied for fourth on the team with Nicklas Backstrom behind Kuznetsov, Oshie and Eller.
Like his fellow stars of the week his advanced stats were pretty average. His team had 39 shot attempts for with him on the ice and 36 against for 52% Corsi%. He had a 48.65% scoring chance percentage, he was on the ice for 18 chances for and 19 against. He had nine high danger attempts for and eight against. On the right side of 50% officially being 52.94%.
As we noted before while discussing Eller, Vrana had nine individual scoring chances which was tied for second on the team. He was tied for second in high danger attempts as well with five, tied with Backstrom but behind Wilson’s six.
He might have gone through a slump but the chances were still there. Now those chances have turned into goals once again. Maybe we’re seeing the start of another impressive stretch for the young Czech forward? If so, expect to see Vrana on our stars of the week a lot once again. As for now, welcome back to the stars of the week Mr. Vrana.
Related Story. Capitals comeback to defeat Sharks. light
The Caps have started the week strong by completing a heck of a comeback against a bad Sharks team, now we’ll see if they can finish the week strong against a couple more “bad” teams. If the Capitals play to their potential it could be a big week in our next stars of the week. See you there.