That the Washington Capitals are a better team with Alex Ovechkin on the ice at five-on-five than with him on the bench would probably be the least controversial assertion made in this space since we referred to Dane Cook as “unfunny.” But how do we quantify how much better the Caps were during AO’s shifts?
It’s rather simple, really – take a look at the team’s plus-minus while he was on the ice and compare it to the plus-minus rate when he was off the ice (thanks, BtN!). Needless to say, a positive differential here (i.e. a better +/-ON than +/-OFF) indicates that the team was better off with him than without him.
With that introduction out of the way, let’s take a look at the numbers for the skaters who played at least twenty games for the Caps, with quality of competition and teammates thrown in for context (remember, this is all five-on-five):
And, just for fun, the two new guys:
Alright, so what’ve we got? A few observations:
There’s more to take away from these numbers, but that’s a start. You guys can finish it in the comments.