Washington Capitals: T.J. Oshie will be player to watch against Sabres

With Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov out of the lineup the next four games, the Washington Capitals will look to other faces to generate offense. One key player to keep your eye on tonight is T.J. Oshie, who like Ovechkin shows zero signs of aging or that age is just a number.

Since the 2015-16 season, Oshie ranks second on the Caps with 129 goals behind only Ovechkin who has 232. Oshie is one of 44 players with over 120 goals in his last six seasons.

Oshie has scored 129 goals on 735 shots which is a success rate of 17.5 percent. That is the second highest shooting percentage in the NHL among players with at least 120 goals during that span (Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets: 17.6 percent).

The Caps will not only be without Ovechkin and Kuznetsov but Dmitry Orlov and Ilya Samsonov as well. Samsonov tested positive for the coronavirus. The Caps will have to look to players like Oshie to step up.

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Oshie started the season on the top line with Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. The other day he went down to the third line. Now with the four absences, the lines have been shaken up once again. At morning skate Oshie was skating on the second line with Richard Panik and Lars Eller.

Here are what the lines looked like via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:

Forwards
Vrana-Backstrom-Wilson
Panik-Eller-Oshie
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Sprong-Pinho-Sheary

Defense
Dillon-Carlson
Siegenthaler-Schultz
Chara-Jensen

Oshie had his best game of the season in the season opener against the Buffalo Sabres where the Caps won both games. In that opening game, Oshie had a goal and a pair of assists. He was held off the scoresheet since then until the other night when he had an assist in the overtime loss to the Penguins.

Last season Oshie had 26 goals which was one more than he had the previous year. He added 23 assists for 49 points. The reason he isn’t getting top line minutes is because of the recent production coming from Tom Wilson including a two goal effort in Pittsburgh the other night.

No matter what line he’s on, you can count on Oshie for showing up, rising to the occasion and being the heart of any lineup. He even makes his teammates around him better. Look at how Wilson and Jakub Vrana have turned into top stars in the NHL.

You can catch T.J. Oshie and the Caps tonight at 7 p.m. with a special Rock the Red Carpet airing at 4 p.m. on the Caps social media channels.