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Capitals: Stars Of The Week – Ovechkin Saves The Day

By CJ Witt |
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 04: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals looks on in the first period against the Los Angeles Kings at Capital One Arena on February 04, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 04: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals looks on in the first period against the Los Angeles Kings at Capital One Arena on February 04, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
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WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 08: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates against the Philadelphia Flyers at Capital One Arena on February 08, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 08: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates against the Philadelphia Flyers at Capital One Arena on February 08, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

It was not a very good week for the Washington Capitals.

To start off they got beat by the rival Pittsburgh Penguins at home, and were really out performed for much of that game. Then the Caps had trouble getting past the western conference’s worst team the Los Angeles Kings. They then followed those games up with the worst performance of the season with a 7-2 defeat to the Philadelphia Flyers.

It was just a bad week. That is going to make picking stars of the week a little difficult this time around. There is only two games to be reviewed since the Penguins game counted for last weeks stars of the week. Neither game was very good and not a whole lot of guys stood out.

So, here we go! We’ll start with the easy one.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 04: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring his first goal of the game against the Los Angeles Kings in the third period at Capital One Arena on February 04, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 04: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring his first goal of the game against the Los Angeles Kings in the third period at Capital One Arena on February 04, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Alex Ovechkin

Without the captain this week we’re probably talking about another loss. Alex Ovechkin dragged his team to a victory against the LA Kings on Tuesday night. The Capitals were down 2-1 more than halfway through the third period, then Ovechkin scored a natural hat trick in just about 5 minutes.

That was his final stat line for the week as well, 3 goals for 3 points. The three points was tied for the team lead this week, the three goals was the best on the Caps for the week.

Ovechkin’s advanced stats weren’t very good this week, but you could say that for most of the team. Out of the nineteen Capitals who played this week fifteen of them had a Corsi% below 50%. Eleven had a scoring chance for% below 50% as well.

Ovechkin had 23 shots attempts while on the ice and 27 against for a 46% Corsi rating. Washington had 8 scoring chances for and 12 against with Ovechkin on the ice, meaning his scoring chance for percentage was 40%. They also had 3 high danger attempts for and 5 against with Ovechkin on the ice.

I’m about to blow your mind here, are you ready? Go get some water before you read this. Or better yet don’t because you will probably spit it out in surprise. Ovechkin led the team in shots this week. He had 7 shots on goal for the week, the next highest was 5 that was shared by Michal Kempny and Radko Gudas. Kempny and Gudas being team leaders in shots shows you how this week went I suppose.

Ovechkin was fairly low in the scoring chances, with only three, and high danger attempts having two. Both are pretty low for the great eight.

It was a hard week to pick stars of the week. Considering Ovechkin dragged his team to their only victory of the week I thought he was clearly one of our stars of the week. Possibly the only obvious one.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 08: Washington Capitals right wing T.J. Oshie (77) is congratulated by left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) after his goal in the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers on February 8, 2020 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 08: Washington Capitals right wing T.J. Oshie (77) is congratulated by left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) after his goal in the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers on February 8, 2020 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

T.J. Oshie

Now it gets hard. Who do you put on stars of the week in a week where nearly nobody stood out? We’ll have to go with stats and T.J. Oshie had some good numbers this week.

Oshie was one of three guys to have three points this week, tied with Ovechkin and John Carlson. He had 1 goal, a power play goal against the Flyers, and added two assists. Both of those assists were primary assists.

Oshie was by far the best Capital in the advanced stats department, at least in terms of shot attempts. His 59.46% Corsi rating was more than 7% better than the next highest number, that being Nicklas Backstrom with a 52.08 Corsi%.

Oshie was also one of four Capitals to post a scoring chance for% over 60% and he was the only guy not on the third line with a percentage that high. Oshie’s final number was 62.50% which was fourth best on the team this week. He added 5 high danger attempts and 2 against while on the ice.

Oshie’s shooting percentage was 100% this week, he only registered one shot on goal all week and he tickled the twine with said shot. He had two individual scoring chances and zero high danger attempts this week.

Clearly not the best week we’ve ever seen, but he put up some points and his advanced stats were good. That’s better than most of the team this week and thanks to that he deserves to be one of our stars of the week this week.

OTTAWA, ON – JANUARY 31: Carl Hagelin #62 of the Washington Capitals looks on in a game against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on January 31, 2020 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)
OTTAWA, ON – JANUARY 31: Carl Hagelin #62 of the Washington Capitals looks on in a game against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on January 31, 2020 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images) /

Carl Hagelin

The Capitals are not as good of a team for the last few weeks or possibly even months. If you’re going to take a silver lining out of that fact the third line is probably it. Even in some bad games I still noticed this line going somewhat good. You could give this spot to the entire line if you wanted to, but looking at stats Carl Hagelin was just a bit better than his linemates.

Hagelin only had one point this week, that was a secondary assist. Panik and Eller however had zero points, giving Hagelin the small advantage here.

Hagelin also beat his linemates in all the advanced stats. His 49.02% Corsi was the best on the third line, and 6th on the team this week. Richard Panik’s number was 48.08% and Eller’s was 45.83%.

The scoring chance percentages had Hagelin at 69.23% which was the best on the Caps this week. Panik’s was 62.96% and Eller’s was 66.67%. Those were the best three on the team. The Capitals had 10 high danger attempts with Hagelin on the ice and only 3 against.

This week Hagelin had 4 shots. He had 5 individual scoring chances which was tied for the best on the week with Panik and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Hagelin and Panik also tied for the most individual high danger attempts with 4.

One final stat, Hagelin led the team in takeaway’s this week with 3.

light. Related Story. Capitals fall to Flyers on Saturday night

The third line has been going good. If the Capitals can get back on track, which they should be able to, expect this line to look even better. Seemingly every week someone on this line gets on our stars of the week. This week is no different. Welcome to the list Carl Hagelin.

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