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Washington Capitals Stars Of The Week: 1/12 – 1/19

By CJ Witt |
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 16: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring his third goal of the game for a hat trick against the New Jersey Devils in the third period at Capital One Arena on January 16, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 16: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring his third goal of the game for a hat trick against the New Jersey Devils in the third period at Capital One Arena on January 16, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
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UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – JANUARY 18: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his goal at 10:22 of the first period against the New York Islanders and is joined by Tom Wilson #43 (L) Nicklas Backstrom #19 (R) at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on January 18, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. With the game, Ovechkin passed Mario Lemieux (690) for the 10th most goal in NHL history. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – JANUARY 18: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his goal at 10:22 of the first period against the New York Islanders and is joined by Tom Wilson #43 (L) Nicklas Backstrom #19 (R) at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on January 18, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. With the game, Ovechkin passed Mario Lemieux (690) for the 10th most goal in NHL history. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

It’s hard to believe, but this will be the final stars of the week before the NHL all-star weekend.

It’s amazing how a season can feel like it’s dragging but flying by at the same time. It was an incredible first half of the season for the Washington Capitals and their great play and success continued this past week.

Three games were played and three wins were recorded. Two of the wins came against teams that you could consider a threat in the playoffs. The first was a great 2-0 win vs the Carolina Hurricanes, the other came on Saturday afternoon vs the New York Islanders. The bad part was that they were down 4-1 before winning vs the Isles, but a win is a win and we all love a good comeback don’t we?

They also discarded a not so good New Jersey Devils team in the middle of the week winning 5-2 on Thursday night.

Now it’s time to sit back, relax and recharge for the second half of the season. The Capitals have eight days off before they get back to work in Montreal on the 27th. But, before we can officially call it a break we have to give out our stars of the week. And we will do that right about…

NOW!

UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – JANUARY 18: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his empty net goal against the New York Islanders which tied him with Steve Yzerman on the NHL all time goal scoring list at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on January 18, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. The Capitals defeated the Islanders 6-4. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – JANUARY 18: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his empty net goal against the New York Islanders which tied him with Steve Yzerman on the NHL all time goal scoring list at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on January 18, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. The Capitals defeated the Islanders 6-4. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Alex Ovechkin

Lets not bury the lead. This is obvious and we won’t waste your time and put the obvious one last. Alex Ovechkin continues to climb in the record books. This time he’s passed Mario Lemieux and tied Steve Yzerman with 692 career goals. Ovechkin is just eight away from an outstanding, usually unspeakable 700 career goals. There have been a lot of hockey players to play in the NHL, only seven guys have recorded over 700 goals, it’s about to be eight.

https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1218676067197751297

This week the captain had eight goals in three games. I’m not going to try to find a word to describe that because there really isn’t one. He only had 12 shots this week by the way and he scored on eight of them, how about that?

He blew away the field in individual scoring chances as well, he had 19 of those, the next best was Tom Wilson with 9.

On top of his outstanding stats he also had good advanced stats. His Corsi% was a very good 62.82%. With number eight on the ice the Capitals got 44 shot attempts for and only 26 against. The scoring chances also went Washington’s way with the captain on the ice, they got 25 chances for and 12 against. The Caps had 11 high danger attempts and four against when Ovechkin was on the ice.

Just sit back and enjoy folks. We’re watching one of the best to ever play. We’re watching the best goalscorer ever if you’re asking me. His talents were on full display this past week. If there ever is a no doubter in stars of the week, Ovechkin was it.

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 11: Carl Hagelin #62 of the Washington Capitals skates with the puck against Sami Vatanen #45 of the New Jersey Devils in the third period at Capital One Arena on January 11, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 11: Carl Hagelin #62 of the Washington Capitals skates with the puck against Sami Vatanen #45 of the New Jersey Devils in the third period at Capital One Arena on January 11, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Carl Hagelin

Carl Hagelin has three goals all season long and two of them came this week. There were three Capitals this week to score multiple goals, Ovechkin scored his eight, Vrana scored two and Hagelin was the third. Not a bad pair to join if you’re the third line winger who has struggled to score this season.

Individually Hagelin was towards the top in a couple of stats. He had seven scoring chances which was tied for third on the team this week as well as six high danger attempts and that was tied for second on the Caps in the week. It’s nice to see Hagelin get towards the top of the list in those two stats.

His Corsi% was very good this week. While on the ice the Capitals got 34 shot attempts for and 22 against which results in a 60.71%. Scoring chances were more even, 16 chances for and 15 against and the high danger attempts had the Capitals at eight with their opponents at six. Pretty even and average numbers.

https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1218626627862556672

In a bad area the Capitals scored two goals with Hagelin on the ice, both being him obviously, and allowed three. Something to know, all three of the goals against came against the Islanders on Saturday.

I’ve been saying it all season, if the third line can score more consistently this Capitals team may be unbeatable. Hagelin got two this week and he helped the team win all three games. A great week for him and that means he’ll be one of our stars of the week.

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 16: Tom Wilson #43 of the Washington Capitals warms up before a game against the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena on January 16, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 16: Tom Wilson #43 of the Washington Capitals warms up before a game against the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena on January 16, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Tom Wilson

I guess if his linemate is setting records and scoring a bunch of goals you might as well put Tom Wilson on stars of the week as well. Wilson also set up an Ovechkin goal on a pretty crazy pass.

https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1218018717319208961

He scored three points this week, one being a goal and having two assists. Both assists were primary assists which is what gave him the edge this week.

Individually he was one of the top Capitals players this week. He had nine scoring chances which was second best on the team, and he had six high danger attempts, that was tied for second on the week with Hagelin behind only Ovechkin.

His advanced stats were pretty good. His Corsi% was 54.84%, 34 shot attempts for with 28 against. His scoring chance percentage was 59.46%, Washington had 22 chances for and 15 against with Wilson on the ice. Finally, the Caps had 11 high danger attempts to just six against with Wilson on the ice.

Wilson was also among the leaders in hits this week as you would imagine. He only had six though, a bit low for him, but that was still good enough for third on the team behind Radko Gudas and Garnet Hathaway.

This possibly could have gone to other guys this week, but Wilson had good stats, good advanced stats and had maybe the best play of the week. He is definitely deserving of being on our stars of the week.

A couple of other guys who you could put on this list this week would be John Carlson, who had five points and Jakub Vrana who had three points and two goals. A good week from both of them as well, but just fell behind thanks to a couple of other stats the three stars of the week beat them on.

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Now we’re done. It’s time to sit back and smell the mid-season roses. There are no games next week so there will be no stars of the week. The next time we’ll see you here is in February. Enjoy the break and the all-star weekend everybody!

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