Regular season
Playoffs
Key Stat: Nick Jensen set a new career high in points this season with 20. His 15 points with Detroit tied the record he set last season, but the five assists he added in Washington tipped him to a season best.
The Good: It definitely took him a few games, but Jensen fit pretty well into Washington’s defensive system after the trade. He was particularly effective on the penalty kill, adjusting well to the Caps’ PK plans even though he only played 29 shorthanded minutes. Jensen played primarily on the third defensive pairing with Brooks Orpik, which seemed to work well for both of them especially because has some pretty serious wheels.
Fun fact: the Capitals had a regular season record of 14-6-1 with Jensen in the lineup. Not bad, not bad.
The Bad: Nick Jensen was touted as this season’s Michal Kempny, and he…wasn’t. It isn’t that he was bad, even if he did have his rough moments, he just didn’t provide the spark the struggling Capitals’ blue line so desperately needed. He was also a bit inconsistent: he had some stellar moments like a sweet slapshot on net to be deflected for a goal or getting a breakout started with his speed and slick passing, but they would be quickly followed by moments that made you want to groan and take another drink. You know those plays, the ones where opposing players made him look like he was skating through glue and completely unaware of what was happening. In his 20 games with the Caps this season, he was caught off guard and flat-footed a concerning and frustrating number of times. From game to game, even from shift to shift, you never quite knew which Jensen you were going to get.
The Video:
The Charts:
The Discussion: The Capitals wasted no time in locking Jensen up the same day they acquired him from Detroit, signing him to a four-year, $10 million contract extension. How does he make that extension worth it? Is there something specific he needs to improve on? Is there anything he can do to better fit into the way the Caps play? What would it take for you to give him a ‘10’ next season?
Other Jensen Season Reviews: Peerless, RMNB
The Vote: Rate Jensen below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season – if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.