Why The Washington Capitals Not Trading Evgeny Kuznetsov Was A Great Idea

Lars Eller’s Down Season

Thanks to the last two games, Lars Eller’s numbers look a lot better. He has four points in his last two games giving him 27 points in 63 games. Before that he had 23 points in 61 games. Last season he had 23 points in 44 games played. That shows you how much he had been struggling.

His issues go beyond stats to me. Most nights you don’t notice, or you notice Eller for the wrong reasons. It’s just been a down season for him. Maybe he has some excuses built in there? He has had some trouble with COVID, landing on that list twice this year being forced to stay in road cities for an extended amount of time.

Whatever the reasons are, it doesn’t change the fact that it has been a down season for the Capitals third C. It’s been such a strange season for him that he has been moved off of his position of 3C to the wing. What would have been your reaction if I had told you that before the season started?

Center depth used to be a huge plus for this Capitals team. Kuznetsov, Backstrom, Eller and Dowd, or Beagle going back several seasons now. So far here we have talked about an aging Backstrom trying to fight off time, and now we are talking about Eller having a down year. Again, without Kuznetsov that center position would not be contributing too much this year.