Next up on our Washington Capitals player report cards is fourth line center Nic Dowd. He is a solid bottom six forward who has helped keep the fourth line steady despite all the adversity it dealt with such as Carl Hagelin’s eye injury that could be career threatening.
In 64 games Dowd had 10 goals which was just one shy of his career high that he set the season before. He also had 14 assists for 24 points. That’s a career high in points. In the playoffs he had a goal and an assist for two points in six games. That goal came to open up the scoring in Game 6.
Dowd has a plus minus of plus 10 while averaging 14:16 minutes of ice time. He had 53 blocks and 139 hits. He also had 44 penalty minutes and when he wasn’t in the box did his part on the penalty kill.
Dowd’s advanced stats were pretty good. His Corsi For percentage came out to 50.44 percent in the regular season while his Expected Goals For percentage came out to 51.83 percent and his High Danger Chances For percentage being 52.97 percent, per Natural Stat Trick.
Like the rest of the team, Dowd’s advanced stats dipped in the postseason. His Corsi For percentage came out to 40.38 percent, his Expected Goals For percentage at 38.16 percent and his High Danger Chances For percentage at 37.50 percent.
With the healthy fourth line trio of Dowd, Hagelin, and Garnet Hathaway, their combined Corsi For percentage came out to 53.66 percent, while their Expected Goals For percentage was at 51.86 percent and their High Danger Chances For percentage at 54.29 percent.
Dowd and Hathaway without Hagelin had a combined Corsi For percentage of 53.66 percent, an Expected Goals For percentage of 56.81 percent, and a High Danger Chances For percentage of 62.90 percent.
Grade B+: The only separation from an A for Dowd was the amount of penalty minutes that he took but other than that he had a solid season and earned that payday in November.