Andre Burakovsky has been a pleasant surprise this season. (Caps Outsider)
Several numbers stood out this season, whether they were a stat, a player’s jersey, or a dollar figure. Here are several notable ones.
10
This is Alex Ovechkin’s plus/minus. With advanced stats like Corsi and Fenwick, this stat can be overlooked. However, it’s notable because +45 from last year, and that’s not merely a coincidence.
70
Braden Holtby has been a savor this organization has been looking for in net. The a Caps leaned on him a lot this year, and should have been considered for the Vezina. He is the reason the Caps were even up 3-1 against the Rangers in the first place. He deserves all the money he gets. Thank you Holtby.
53
The number of games Andre Burakovsky played this year. This is a decent number for a rookie, and he has a promising career ahead of him.
2/ 44
Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen. Many folks thought the Caps paid too much money for these two, but this season, they proved to be worth it. With Orpik’s hitting and Niskanen’s surprising number of assists (27), I like these deals although the cap hit is serious.
19
The most underrated player in the NHL. Nicklas Backstrom is by far the Caps’ all around best player. He is humble, too, one of the reasons he may be overlooked. Many believed he deserved to be an All Star yet he just ignored not being selected and continued to play his game. Backstrom ended with 60 assists, a nice benchmark for one of the league’s best passers.
45
The Caps’ number of wins. This is a great number for the first year under coach Barry Trotz, though he had to recover from a slow start, with only 10 win in the first 23games.
20,734,037
The amount of cap space for the Caps this offseason. The Caps have a total of 28 free agents including those that only played in Hershey, and only 14 are restricted free agents. This will be an interesting offseason for the Caps to say the least.
