The Stats:
Regular Season
Playoffs
The Charts:
The Key Stat: T.J. Oshie netted 13 power play goals this season, which not only led the team but also set a new career high. The Caps’ power play is so often Ovi-centric, but the team was Ovi-less for 11 games this year and needed someone else to help pick up the slack. Enter: Oshbabe.
The Good: T.J. Oshie was an incredibly valuable part of the Capitals’ roster this season. He was third on the team in points with 43 and second in goals with 22, just two behind Ovechkin. Oshie also recorded the second-highest shooting percentage of his career at 20.8%, and his 2.7 points per 60 minutes ties the career high he set in the 2016-2017 season.
Oshie also proved what an important asset he is in the locker room this season. He is clearly one of the hearts of the team both on and off the ice. He was often called upon to don the extra “A” on his sweater when either Ovechkin, Backstrom, or Carlson were out of the lineup, and he was more than up for the task.
The Bad: The Caps called on T.J. Oshie to fill in at center at times this season, and that went…okay. Oshie was certainly one of the better options for a cap-strapped team that couldn’t afford to call someone up, but it is not his natural position and it showed. He won 139 of 290 faceoffs for a 47.9% success rate, which is not great but honestly passable for a winger-playing-center.
Oshie was also a bit streaky in the goal-scoring department this season, despite scoring the second-most goals on the team. His 1.4 goals per 60 minutes was the second-best of his career, but there were a handful of stretches throughout the season where Oshie had noticeably cooled off. In particular, he had a nine game goal drought in the first month of the season and a five game dry spell about a week later.
The Video:
The Discussion: There were plenty of jokes about “future Seattle Kraken forward T.J. Oshie” throughout the year, but where do you stand on that possibility now? Will Oshie’s power play production continue next season? Did you like the T.J. Oshie-Anthony Mantha combo after the trade deadline? And finally, what would it take for you to give Oshie a 10 next season?
The Vote: Rate T.J. Oshie 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.