Washington Capitals: Stars Of The Week – Holtby Rounding Into Form?
For the longest time we would start stars of the week by saying how well the team was doing.
If three games were played during the week it wouldn’t be rare to be talking about three wins. Or maybe two wins and an overtime or shootout loss. Well things are going as well for the Capitals these days.
Now it seems like we’re talking about more losses than wins when we gather here to discuss the weeks best Capital players. This week is no different. Another three games have passed and we will be talking about two losses. There were some better performances as a team though so perhaps when we gather here next week for stars of the week the team will be back on track.
However, as you know by now, the team as a whole doesn’t get discussed here much. This is where we reward the weeks best players. This week, to me, there was one slam dunk of a choice. The other two were a bit harder, but I think deserving choices.
Braden Holtby
Here is your slam dunk. We haven’t put goalies on our list much this season. Holtby has struggled most of this season and Samsonov, while he has played well hasn’t had a great week, just good ones. Braden Holtby had a very, very good week.
On the Win/loss side of things it doesn’t sound like the best week, one win, one loss and a no decision. But looking at his stats he had a tremendous week. Here are Holtby’s save percentages by game this week.
100%
.941%
.931%
Not bad. His combined save percentage for the week was .947%. That’s pretty good for a guy sporting a .897 save percentage for the season. He also had a 1.67 goals against average for the week.
A big thing to note for the former Vezina winner was his high danger save percentage. This week Holtby faced 18 high danger shots and saved 17 of them. That gave him a .944 high danger save percentage. That’s huge from a guy who has one of the worst high danger save percentages in the entire NHL this season.
Without Holtby this week the Capitals have zero wins. Without him they have zero chance at being in any of the three games this week. He was outstanding this week. If this is the beginning of a great stretch for Holtby it could mean big things for the Caps.
Holtby was a no-brainer for our stars of the week this week.
Carl Hagelin
Things get a little trickier here. Holtby was an easy choice. Nobody else really was though. Nobody both stood out and put up good stats. The third line however continues to play well and out of the three it was Carl Hagelin who stood out the most and put up the best stats.
Hagelin had two points this week, a goal and an assist. The assist was a primary assist. Hagelin has really heated up over the last couple of weeks. He has four goals and nine points in his last 11 games.
Hagelin’s advanced stats were pretty good this week. His shot attempts broke even, while on the ice the Caps got 31 shot attempts for and allowed 31 attempts against. That’s not great, but it’s still 50%. While on the ice the team also had 14 scoring chances for and 10 against. That’s a 58.33% which was 7th best on the team this week. His 61.54% high danger shot attempts was 5th best on the team, he was on the ice for eight attempts and five against. While 5v5 Hagelin was not on the ice for a goal against, scoring two goals at the same time.
Hagelin won’t ever really stand out individually. He only had three shots this week. He had three scoring chances to go with those three shots, both of those ranking in the middle of the team. His 3 high danger chances was tied for third on the Caps this week.
It’s not a week that was so good it will slap you in the face. But it was a solid week for Carl Hagelin and the third line. Based on how the rest of the team played Hagelin is a fine choice for our stars of the week.
John Carlson
I’m just going to point this out now. Carlson is not making this list this week thanks to his defense. I did not think he was very good in that part of the game this week. That being said, you could say that for most of the team for the last little while here.
John Carlson led the team in scoring this week, possibly extending his lead for the Norris Trophy with every point scored? He registered four points this week with three of them being primary points. He scored one goal and three assists, two of the assists being primary.
While on the ice the Capitals were able to get 60 shot attempts while allowing 50 attempts against. That gives Carlson a 54.55% Corsi rating this week. On the downside, the Caps had 26 scoring chances for and 29 against with Carlson on the ice. The only guy who had more chances against while on the ice was Dmitry Orlov who had 30 against.
Carlson was also the third worst Capital this week in high danger shot attempt%. He had five attempts for and 13 attempts against while on the ice. But, like I said to start, he didn’t make this list thanks to his defense.
He had the third most shots on goal this week with 10, behind only Jakub Vrana (13) and Alex Ovechkin (21). He had four individual scoring chances this week as well. That was tied with Kempny for most among defensemen.
With the good comes the bad, at least recently with Carlson. This week he had seven giveaways which was more than twice the amount the next highest guys had. Both Tom Wilson and Ovechkin had three giveaways. He has to clean that up going forward.
light. Related Story. Capitals fall to Coyotes
He didn’t have the greatest week on D, but he did plenty to help out on offense. Clean up the defense and Carlson will once again be the undisputed Norris Trophy favorite. But awards aren’t handed out just yet, so Carlson will have to settle for one of our stars of the week. Lucky him. His imaginary check will be in the mail shortly.