Capitals: T.J. Oshie is the biggest surprise of 2020

One year ago, T.J. Oshie was in the early stages of his recovery from a collarbone injury from the playoffs. Since his return to the ice at the start of the season, he’s been a pleasant surprise for the Washington Capitals.

Any injury that ends a season is a devastating blow. For the Washington Capitals one injury that changed things for the worse was when T.J. Oshie was hit by Warren Foegele into the boards hurting his collarbone in Game 4 of the first round of the playoffs.

We all know what happened after that. The Capitals squandered a 2-0 series lead, lost one of their best offensive weapons, and failed to close out the Carolina Hurricanes when they had a 3-2 series lead. Since the Oshie injury the Caps went 1-3 that spring.

The thing about Oshie though is that he’s the heart and soul of the Caps with his positive energy and highlight reel goals. How would he respond to a season-ending injury? We found out this season right from the get go.

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Oshie is second on the team in scoring with 26 goals, picking up right where he left off. Despite being 33 years of age, he hasn’t slowed down and was well on his way to having his best season in a Capitals sweater since the 2016-17 season when he scored 33 goals.

Through 69 games this season Oshie has scored 26 goals and added 23 assists for 49 points. It was a one goal improvement from the previous season and better than his 18 goal season he had in 2017-18 that was also plagued by an injury.

Thankfully, that injury happened in the early part of the season and not when the Caps were making their push towards the Stanley Cup. After all, that trade five summers ago sending Troy Brouwer to the St. Louis Blues for Oshie truly paid off and helped the team capture the Cup down the road.

As for the top goal he scored this season that was easily from this video above where he undressed two Boston Bruins defenders before flipping the puck into the net backhanded.

It’s not a surprise that Oshie scored 26 goals this season. But the road he took to get back to his old self has been a pleasant surprise for the Capitals and their fans. Here’s hoping we see Oshie and the Caps back on the ice and that we can all sing “Country Roads” at the top of our lungs next time he scores a goal.