Capitals defensemen John Carlson and Martin Fehervary had been paired in combination via head trainer Peter Laviolette for everything of Fehervary’s rookie 2021-22 season. The duo shared the ice at five-on-five for over 1,048 mins and simplest separated for COVID or injury-related problems.
They remained in combination for the primary 4 video games of the 2022-23 marketing campaign till being cut up at Wednesday’s follow. Now, it seems like Carlson may skate with Dmitry Orlov and Fehervary with Nick Jensen on Thursday in Ottawa.
So, what introduced in regards to the exchange?
Up till about mid-December of closing season, the staff’s de facto most sensible pairing of Carlson and Fehervary gave the look of an excellent fit. That’s defined via this symbol Peter put in combination for Fehervary’s season assessment that displays how the younger defenseman’s play began to degrade proper about after he returned from a COVID-protocol-forced damage.
If you sought after to look that during natural numerical shape, right here’s a desk from that very same submit. His numbers and via extension the pairing’s numbers fell off a cliff.
When RMNB’s Ian Oland spoke to Fehervary at this yr’s Training Camp, he mentioned what he idea was the primary issue.
“Maybe that first year or whatever, maybe we were a little bit tired,” Fehervary mentioned. “I noticed that. I feel like more my body were a little bit tired. I played 20 games the season before and then right away getting that type of schedule, it was like really hard for me. Hopefully, we’ll be better this year.”
The league’s 2021-22 time table was condensed and filled with rescheduled video games because of COVID-19. Rookies that haven’t played a ton {of professional} hockey generally tend to combat with an ordinary time table’s period, let on my own having to handle one so jammed pack with video games in this kind of short while span.
With all of that being mentioned, there are not any restrictions this yr and each avid gamers entered the season wholesome after a standard offseason.
So how have they played in combination during the first 4 video games? Not nice. With the pairing at the ice at five-on-five, the Caps are seeing simply 47 % of the shot makes an attempt, 39-percent of the predicted targets, 44.7 % of the scoring probabilities, and 33.3 % of the high-danger probabilities.
It isn’t simply the stats that say they’ve began poorly, you’ll be able to see it on recreation tape as neatly. Against the Bruins, Fehervary aggressively attempted to step up on a play exiting the Boston zone. He misplaced his stick, Carlson over-committed to the puck, and so they had no ahead lend a hand because of a line exchange. Taylor Hall scored an simple one.
In that very same recreation, Carlson were given stuck in no guy’s land within the impartial zone which allowed David Pastrnak a semi-breakaway that Darcy Kuemper got here up giant towards. The downside was that Carlson additionally didn’t backcheck just about laborious sufficient and mainly simply watched David Krejci rating the rebound function that sealed Boston’s victory.
Against the Canucks, Fehervary were given stuck in two minds about whether or not or to not step up into the oncoming attacker, leaving him in no guy’s land within the impartial zone. He then didn’t keep along with his guy at the zone access and it ended in a rebound function for Bo Horvat.
Some of essentially the most convincing common sense in the back of isolating the 2 comes when looking at how the Capitals fared (measured in shot makes an attempt) when Carlson and Fehervary had been in combination closing season in comparison to after they had been aside. When Carlson was with any person else, the Caps completely ruled play.
The overwhelming majority of the proof that we’ve got says this transfer has been a very long time coming. It may purely simply be that the 2 don’t have compatibility neatly with one every other as as soon as idea and truly has not anything to do with one of the crucial different contextual questions (COVID, power ranges) said previous.
Trying one thing else turns out like the best transfer via Peter Laviolette and he mentioned that when follow Wednesday.
“We shook it up a little bit in the third period,” Laviolette mentioned. “From a production standpoint it just hadn’t been there, so Kevin McCarthy and I talked and he thought switching the pairs would maybe create a spark. I thought it did. I thought we played much better in the third period so we’ll leave it for a bit here and see how it goes.”