Lars Eller 2022 Report Card
On the anniversary of the Washington Capitals winning the Stanley Cup it’s only fitting that today’s report card features Lars Eller. After all his goal in round one kept the Caps season alive and Game 5 of the Cup final pretty much sealed it.
So The Tiger is clutch when you need him to be. And while he had an up and down season that included two battles with COVID-19 that kept him in quarantine in a hotel room in different cities he had 13 goals and 18 assists for 31 points in 72 games.
His 13 goals were five more than the previous season and matched his total from 2018-19. Though he did have 16 goals in 69 games before the pandemic. In the playoffs Eller had three points in six games with a goal and two assists. He had seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in Washington’s run to the Cup four years ago.
Eller had some decent advanced stats per Natural Stat Trick. In the regular season he had a Corsi For percentage of 50.60 percent, an Expected Goals For percentage of 48.49 percent, and a High Danger Chances For percentage of 47.15 percent. In the playoffs, his Corsi For percentage was fourth on the team at 49.38 percent. His High Danger Chances For was at 45.95 percent, a huge drop but then again it was a weird series. His Expected Goals For percentage was at 53.73 percent.
Perhaps the other thing that held Eller back besides the two battles with COVID was the revolving door that was the third line. There were even some stretches where they moved Eller from center to wing. Does this mean the team is ready to move on from him and insert young buck Connor McMichael into that spot? It’s going to be an interesting summer for The Tiger.
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Grade C-: Eller gets a C- but like we said on the Backstrom report card, C’s get degrees. He had a down season and as you’ve seen, he would be one of the odd men out at center to make room for McMichael if I was GMBM. But we do love Eller and we’ll always be grateful for those clutch goals in 2018. It’s only fitting your report card came on the Cup anniversary.