Connor McMichael
Last and very much not least. I think it might be a toss up on what has been more exciting for Capitals fans this season. Ovechkin and his almost can't miss start would probably win. But right behind him has to be Connor McMichael and his breakout start.
McMichael is behind only Ovechkin in goals scored with 12 tallies. Those 12 goals puts him pretty high in the league as well. He is ahead of some pretty impressive names too. I think the "best Connor Mc in the league" is an incredibly overused joke on social media, but he does have more goals than McDavid.
While you do need luck for shots to go in, and McMichael has gotten that luck so far this season, his success isn't for lack of trying. He leads the team in both individual scoring chances with 63 and individual high danger attempts with 37. Is he getting luck in pucks going in? Yes. But he's getting there. He's getting in the scoring areas and creating chances. That's almost all you want in hockey. If you're in a slump and you're not getting chances that's a problem. If pucks aren't going in but you're getting those chances you think at some point they'll start going in.
Well, they're going in for McMichael right now.
It'd be unreasonable to say that McMichael has carried the 2nd line this season. Both of his linemates in Wilson and Dubois have played well this season. But neither of those guys have a lot of goals this season, especially recently. Dubois scored in the Capitals last game, he has 2 goals in 19 games. Wilson does have 6 goals in 19 games, but he has one goal in his last 15 games and he hasn't scored a goal since Halloween, which is now almost a month ago.
So yes, McMichael kind of is carrying that line offensively.
Numbers are numbers. Sure, we can look at them. He has a 54.18 scoring chance for percentage, 5th on the team. His high danger attempts percentage is 55.75, 6th on Washington. Both good.
But at some point it's just about watching a player. On a lot of nights McMichael looks like the Capitals best player. Which when you're talking about him maybe being better than the two players we've already talked about, that's a pretty good accomplishment.
Final Thought
I was going to put some honorable mentions here, but decided against it. Because at what point do you stop when you do that? Like we said earlier, there are a lot of players playing well this season. Dubois and Wilson have both been very good, they should be mentioned. I think Jakob Chychrun has looked very good too. The goaltending, while not outstanding by any means has been good.
Even a guy like Jakub Vrana has come in and scored some goals, he's scoring half a point a game basically. That's been a fun thing to see early in the year, a guy trying to revive his career.
So instead of picking just one or maybe two guys and going into a little more detail on them, there are a few mentions of guys who have been doing things worth mentioning. But you could still mention other players as well. It's been a good start in Washington.