Capitals: Stars Of The Week – Role Players Lead The Way
It seems like we’ve been here before.
Things didn’t go that well for the Capitals this week. They lose more games than they won, they’re trying to give up first place in the division, but they finish all that up by beating the arch rival Penguins. I guess if you’re going to choose one team to beat somewhat regularly that’s the one to beat. Other than that game it was another pretty poor week, results wise for the Capitals.
Now is the time however to not focus on the team so much and focus on the individuals. Now we give out some praise to the players who had the best week on the Capitals. Now is the time we give out our stars of the week.
As you will soon see, and as the title of this weeks post says, this week is filled with lower line players who all had terrific weeks. Maybe for the team to get back on track it’s the star players who need to lead this team, but this week it was the role players who had great weeks. With that said, here are our stars of the week.
Richard Panik
Richard Panik has not had the season most were hoping for. He played most of the year on the third line next to Lars Eller and Carl Hagelin. He had some good games, but never was able to consistently be one of the most noticeable players. He has since been “demoted” to the fourth line thanks to a big trade the Caps made. He’s looked pretty good on the last line.
This week Panik had five points, that led the entire team. He scored one goal and had four assists, three of those assists were secondary. He also had four scoring chances this week and added two high danger attempts. He was also on the ice for five goals for and none against.
Panik also had one of the best weeks on the team when talking about advanced stats. His 58.73% Corsi rating ranked second on the team behind only Eller who was at 58.90%. His scoring chance percentage was 3rd this week at 72.41%, behind only Nic Dowd and a guy we’ll talk about in a second. He was fourth on the team in high danger attempts percentage at 73.33%.
Maybe it didn’t work out for him on the Caps third line. But since getting moved down after the Kovalchuk acquisition Panik has been very good. He put up the stats this week, had good to great advanced stats and was noticeable almost all week. All that tells us he should be one of our stars of the week.
Garnet Hathaway
Garnet Hathaway is having a very good season, and this week was just another example of that. He’s been the one constant on the Caps fourth line this season, with Leipsic now struggling to get into the lineup and the center changing several times.
This week Hathaway had three points, two of those points were goals. The other was an assist, obviously. That assist was a primary assist. He also had eight scoring chances, which was third on the team this week and had seven high danger chances. Those seven chances led the team on the week. He was on the ice for four goals for and zero against.
Like Panik, Hathaway was one of the strongest guys in the advanced stats department. He was third in Corsi% this week at 58%. He was just ahead of Panik in scoring chance percentage this week at 76.92% which was second on the team. While on the ice the Caps had 20 scoring chances and only 6 against. His high danger percentage was 75%, that was also second.
GARNY GOAL! pic.twitter.com/Vxzz47RMMA
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 5, 2020
I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to say Hathaway has been the MVP of the Capitals fourth line this season. He’s been one of the most consistent Capitals all year honestly. It was another good week for him, and that earns him a spot on our stars of the week.
Nick Jensen
He’s one of the most polarizing Capitals players this year. Thanks to his questionable play for a lot of this year he’s also one of the guys trying to hold down a spot on the team. This week though, I thought he was very good. When you’re not great you will likely get called out, when you’re good, I think you deserve some credit. Here’s Nick Jensen‘s credit.
This week he had two points, both of those were assists and both were primary assists. Most defensemen won’t have a ton of scoring chances and high danger attempts, Jensen is no different. This week he had three scoring chances and no high danger chances.
His advanced stats were good. His Corsi rating was a solid 54.44%. He had a very good scoring chance percentage at 59.19%, that was second among Capitals defensemen this week, behind only Dmitry Orlov. While on the ice Washington had 29 chances for and 20 against. His 55% high danger attempts ranked tenth this week, third among the defensemen behind Orlov and Kempny.
It was Kempny and Jensen who led the D in goals for and against. Kempny had 5 goals for and 0 against, Jensen had 5 goals for and 1 against. Compare that to the Capitals top D pair, Carlson had 0 goals for and 5 against, Dillon had 1 goal for and 4 against.
Must Read. Capitals vs. Sabres game info. light
Maybe he hasn’t had the best season, but this week was good for him. He deserves credit, and in my book he deserves to be on our stars of the week.