Washington Capitals: The Capitals Will Remain a Physical Force
The Washington Capitals are largely the same team that they were last season. However, if there is one thing that the Caps have lost, it’s some physicality on the back-end.
With the departure of Zdeno Chara and Brenden Dillon it’s no secret that Peter Laviolette’s team lost two big bodies. Chara and Dillon ranked 2nd and 6th respectively on the Caps when it came to hits. Some have questioned if the Capitals will miss those two, as the team’s physicality has been a strength for years.
Martin Fehervary is a solid defender with a big-frame that looks to slot in nicely on the blue-line but even if Fehervary doesn’t live up to expectations the Caps are in a good position physically. It’s also not a secret that the Washington Capitals have plenty of players who can still throw the body around. Unfortunately for the other teams in the Metropolitan Division, the Capitals will remain one of the most physical teams in the 2021-2022 season.
Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, and Nic Dowd were 5 of the team’s top 7 players in hits from a season ago. They all will return and play significant roles for the 2021-2022 team. Here’s a look back at some of the most memorable hits from each player’s respective careers.
Alex Ovechkin, best known for his incredible goal-scoring, is also one of the few superstars in the league that are a physical force. A lot of teams put enforcers in the lineup to protect their star players, just look at what the New York Rangers have done this off-season.
One of the many things that make Ovechkin unique is that he is his own enforcer. In a shortened season last year, Ovechkin laid 98 hits on his opponents, prior to that, he has never recorded fewer than 120 hits, which also came in a shortened season. For comparison’s sake, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ star Sidney Crosby has never dished out more than 90 hits in a season. Nikita Kucherov, another mega-talented Russian winger has never recorded more than 65 hits.
While their styles of play are obviously different, these players are similarly talented to Ovechkin and there is simply no competition when it comes to players of similar-talent from guys that are also not afraid to lay the body. Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes is a big-bodied Russian star that is not afraid to play physically. Svechnikov has recorded at least 114 hits in each of his three seasons. While the potential to be a superstar is there, the young-Russian has never scored more than 24 goals in his career. Ovechkin on the other hand, has never scored less than 24 goals in a season. Ovechkin is once again, in a class of his own. Just take a look at some of these hits.
Tom Wilson – need more be said? The power forward has recorded more than 200 hits in six of his eight seasons in the NHL. The former 16th-overall selection in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft has blossomed into a star.
Despite being widely-hated across the league by fans for his physicality, there is not a GM in the NHL that wouldn’t take Tom Wilson on their team. Despite the fiasco in New York from a season ago, Wilson is a much cleaner player than he was when the NHL suspended him for a pre-season hit on Oskar Sundqvist of the St. Louis Blues.
Let’s back up to a season ago though. While not a popular opinion in DC, Wilson was out of line in New York. The Rangers’ response was more outrageous, but that doesn’t excuse Wilson’s antics. Wilson’s initial punch to the head area of Pavel Buchnevich should not be excused. The hysteria that followed was blown way out of proportion, Artemi Panarin going after Wilson and getting rag-dolled goes to show you the strength of Wilson – nothing more. With that said, Wilson knows better, he understands that he is going to be put under a microscope.
Fair or not, he’s a professional and leading the NHL in penalty minutes is not acceptable for a top-six forward, no matter how you slice it. Wilson needs to take his game a step further, maintaining the elite power he plays with but work even harder to keep himself out of the box. Wilson, a 20-goal scorer two of the last three seasons, is most valuable for the Washington Capitals when he’s on the ice not only for his offensive prowess but his ability to level opponents with big hits like these:
Dmitry Orlov is going to have a breakout season offensively for the Capitals but Orlov really doesn’t get enough credit for his hitting abilities. Orlov will likely be on the Washington Capitals’ top pairing alongside John Carlson all season long and the DC faithful should expect to see at least a couple of highlight-reel hits from the Russian defender. Orlov is widely-regarded as one of the best open-ice hitters in the NHL and there’s good reason for that. Just take a look at a couple of these incredible hits that Orlov has delivered in his career.
The Capitals’ color commentator, Craig Laughlin described the hit as one of the best he’s ever seen.
“What a hip-check, you rarely see them anymore,” Laughlin exclaimed. “That might be the best one I’ve seen in the last 10 seasons plus.”
Orlov has shown the ability to lock-in on puck carriers and deliver crunching blows throughout his career. Recording at least 100 hits from the 2015-2016 season until the 2019-2020 season and adding another 87 in last season’s shortened schedule, the powerful Orlov will provide plenty of physicality to the back-end in DC.
Garnet Hathaway is arguably the Washington Capitals’ enforcer. Top to bottom, the Capitals are a team that can stand up for themselves but Hathaway is the type of player that the Caps should encourage to get into altercations to get under the opposing team’s skin.
Hathaway plays on the team’s fourth-line alongside Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin and despite averaging over 12 minutes of ice-time per game only once in his career, he has dished out at least 154 hits over the past four seasons. Hathaway is a solid grinder who is certainly a more skilled player than a player like Ryan Reaves, but his main contributions come by way of his physical play. Laying big hits like this one on Charlie McAvoy have been a welcome sight to DC fans and Hathaway’s physical nature should take some of the pressure off of Tom Wilson to throw his weight around.
Since joining the Washington Capitals for the 2018-2019 season, Nic Dowd has missed recording 100 hits only once, his first season in DC where he recorded 97 hits. Best known for his defensive-prowess and face-off abilities, Dowd has been utilized extensively on the penalty kill and in the defensive-zone.
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Rarely found on highlight-reels for his hits, Dowd is a physical player nonetheless. One of Dowd’s most impressive hits came as a member of the Los Angeles Kings: