John Carlson is the only Caps D-man who regularly scores goals this season. (Caps Outsider)
This season, most of the Caps offense has come from well, the offense, as only one of the 12 defensemen to suit up for the Caps has scored more than two goals. As of late, however, the Caps defense has joined in on the fun and recently a lot of scoreless streaks have snapped. Let’s take a look at how long it’s been since each of the Caps d-men has celebrated one of their own.
Note: These streaks include both regular season and playoff games
Karl Alzner’s streak went to 31 games before recently scoring against the Nashville Predators (We spoke with him about it).
Mike Green’s scoreless streak, which was the most notable among all Caps d-men, reached 28 games before he netted the only goal, on the power play, in a 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes (We noted everything that happened during this drought).
John Erskine, who is currently nursing a lower body injury, is on a 28 game scoreless streak since the last time he hit the back of the net against the Florida Panthers.
Steven Oleksy’s streak made it 51 games before he scored the Caps’ second goal in what was a very nice 4-1 win against the New York Rangers.
John Carlson is the only Cap defender to score more than two goals this season (with six) and hasn’t suffered any major scoreless streaks as of late.
Jack Hillen, who we won’t see back on the circuit in quite some time due to a nasty injury, fractured his right tibial plateau, which will keep him out for 4-6 months. He hasn’t scored a goal in the NHL in 14 games since getting on the score sheet for the Caps when they played the Toronto Maple Leafs last season (sign his get well card).
Nate Schmidt took 24 games to get his first NHL goal which was against the Nashville Predators. He scored again against the Rangers on Saturday, though Eric Fehr took credit for a bit.
Dmitry Orlov hasn’t had much time with the Caps in recent years but his 18 game scoreless streak has been going on since he netted one against the New York Islanders two seasons ago.
Alex Urbom had a ten-game scoreless streak before scoring for the Caps in a 6-2 win over the New York Islanders but since then, is on an 11-game scoreless streak.
Tyson Strachan holds the longest streak of 56 games since his last goal came when he was on the Florida Panthers as they took on the New York Islanders
Connor Carrick, who has one goal in three games with the Caps this season, and Patrick Wey also have suited up for the Caps this season but have very small sample sizes with very little NHL experience.
Now not all of these defensemen are notable scorers but it’s always nice to have a plan B when your offensive lines can’t seem to make it in. It’s nice to see that as of late the Caps’ defense has begun to contribute more and hopefully it continues in an upward trend.
