9 – Number of Capitals (minimum nine games played) who are averaging more than 50 seconds per shift – including both the defenseman (Mike Green; 59 seconds) and forward (Alex Ovechkin; 58 seconds) with the longest average shift length in the League – most of any team in the NHL.
Here’s how the Caps stack up against the rest of the League, sorted by standings position:
Of course it should be noted that these numbers include spikes for players who skate long power-play shifts (imagine what Ovechkin’s average shift length would look like if the Caps used the full two minutes on more of their power plays, like back in 2009-10, for example). But here’s the list of Caps skaters who are averaging more than 50 seconds per shift – four of them are averaging less than 15 seconds per game on the extra-man unit:
Player | Average Shift Length |
Mike Green | 59 |
Alex Ovechkin | 58 |
Dmitry Orlov | 56 |
John Carlson | 56 |
Nate Schmidt | 54 |
Nicklas Backstrom | 53 |
Karl Alzner | 52 |
Tyson Strachan | 51 |
Marcus Johansson | 50 |
We’ve written about shift length in the past (this post and this one are well worth revisiting), and whenever the issue comes up, a few quotes leap to mind. First, from a coach’s perspective:
Then one from the analytics community:
Finally, Tyler Dellow sums it up perfectly:
It’s easy to cherry-pick examples of long-shifts-gone-bad, and obviously not all do. But it’s worth keeping a close eye on shift length, generally – presumably the Caps coaching staff does. At least, they should…