Defensemen Lead The Way – Washington Capitals Stars Of The Week
Our stars of the week returns here at Stars and Sticks. We are two and a half weeks into the new and shortened season. It’s been a good start for the Washington Capitals, they have jumped out to a 6-0-3 start. They are one of just two teams who have yet to suffer an loss in regulation. The other team being the Florida Panthers. Florida has played just five games while the Capitals have played nine.
Last week we took a look at who got off to a good start to the season. This time we will return to our weekly assessment. Three games were played and there were of course some good performances. Now is the time that we will look at and reward those players.
John Carlson
In terms of scoring, John Carlson has pretty much picked up where he left off. In the nine games played this season he has scored 3 goals and 10 points. You would have to think Carlson will win a Norris Trophy at some point, the start he has had won’t take him out of people’s consideration.
This past week Carlson scored half of his point total. In the three games last week he scored two goals and added 3 assists for a total of 5 points. His 5 points were the second highest total behind only Nicklas Backstrom and his 6 points.
Carlson also had 7 individual scoring chances during the last week. That was also second best among the Capitals, this time only being behind Richark Panik with 8.
We will not be giving Carlson a spot on our stars of the week thanks to his advanced stats however. His Corsi% was among the worst on the team having had 47 shot attempts for while on the ice with 70 against. That means his Corsi% is a pretty bad 40.74%. His scoring chances were a little better. While on the ice the team had 22 chances for with 24 against. They also had 6 high danger attempts for and 8 against with 74 on the ice.
ASDFGHJKLEIHGUHJNSK pic.twitter.com/307RgM2dVE
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 29, 2021
Luckily for Carlson, we don’t give out our stars of the week based only on advanced stats. He was one of the team’s leaders in scoring and he was noticeable. That is plenty good enough to land on our list this week.
Justin Schultz
Justin Schultz, unfortunately, did not have the finish to his week that he or anyone would have liked. He missed the final game of the week thanks to being injured. That probably goes to show you how well his week was going, having missed a full game and still deserving a spot on our stars of the week.
Schultz had the third most points this week even after having missed a game. He scored one goal and added three assists. Something to note, all three of his assists were primary assists, making that stat even more impressive.
The one goal he scored was also a crucial one, giving his Caps team a lead with less than one minute remaining in the game. A lead the team would hang on to and win the game.
Schultz was also one of the most impressive Caps on the advanced stats sheet. He had a Corsi% of 59.57% which was second on the team trailing only the 71.43% of Lars Eller. While on the ice the Capitals had 12 scoring chances for with 7 against for a scoring chance for percentage of 63.16%, that was third on the team behind only Eller (70%) and Hathaway (64.71%). His 85.71% high danger shot attempts was second on the team, once again only behind Eller who had a 100% HDCF%. We should point out Eller played in one game.
REGULATION HERO JUSTIN SCHULTZ! pic.twitter.com/qiAiFhjxcS
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 27, 2021
It was maybe a slower start for Schultz. This past week however was possibly something we may be seeing a lot more of. I think Schultz is a slam dunk for our stars of the week, and hopefully he won’t be out too long.
Vitek Vanecek
There was maybe, at least one skater who deserved to be on this list. With that being said, considering the situation, I think Vitek Vanecek is a clear choice for this spot too. As a franchise you never want to rely on someone with next to zero NHL experience. That’s what the Capitals were forced to do with Vanecek. I think he passed with flying colors.
This week Vanecek won all three games, and he has yet to lose a game in regulation in his young NHL career being 5-0-2.
His stats don’t scream at you. He did not carry a save percentage over 95% and his goals against average isn’t below two. But, I think anyone who watched the games this week saw how good he was and the stats also point out he was good.
His goals against average was a pretty average 2.66 a game. If we’re talking about an established star in the game, that’s iffy. But this is a guy with very little experience, who had to carry the team all of the sudden. 2.66 is a very good number in this instance.
His save percentage was even better than that. Vanecek allowed 8 goals on 105 shots. That means his save percentage was .924%. In the last four games he has played Vanecek has faced 43, 30, 34 and 48 shots against. It’s not like the team has collapsed as made sure he was protected. They are not blocking a ton of shots or forcing shots wide. Vanecek has had to save a bunch of shots, and he has.
This week he faced 19 high danger shots against and he saved 13 of those shots. That means his high danger save percentage is only .684%. That is not very good. As the season goes on we’ll keep an eye on this number. But this week, he performed well enough to overcome this number.
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Stats wise, it wasn’t the best you will see. The Capitals needed him to play well in Ilya Samsonov’s absence and boy he did ever. For that reason, I think this is a easy choice, and he easily deserves a spot on our stars of the week.