The Washington Capitals have now completed 15 games of their 2022-23 regular season schedule. As a result, we can start to consider certain statistics as having a considerable  sample size and worthy of initial assessment.

While the Capitals have dealt with significant injuries at the start of the season, there are certain stats that are more individual and impacted less by the Capitals current injury situation. One of those stats is individual takeaways and giveaways.

The following graph plots the turnover differentials per 60 minutes for each of the Capitals skaters so far this season. The resultant number is derived by simply taking each players total takeaways this season and subtracting their total giveaways. In order to normalize each of the stats (make them comparable with other players), the total takeaways and total giveaways are divided by time on ice/60 minutes before finding the difference.

Lucas Johansen – Johansen has the best differential, although his number is based on just one game played. He had a good game, one takeaway and no giveaways, extrapolated for 60 minutes, but it’s just one game.

Joe Snively has the second-best turnover differential, based on four games played. That’s a little more meaningful number, but still a relatively small sample size.

T.J. Oshie and Lars Eller have the best ratio among the so-called regular starters, with a positive average of two more steals than giveaways per 60 minutes of ice time for Oshie.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – NAK has the worst turnover differential, but his sample size is also small, two games, and one game where he played a team-low 8:51. Small sample size, but worth watching.

John Carlson and Evgeny Kuznetsov have the worst turnover differentials among regular starters, averaging two or more turnovers than takeaways per game.

While the sample size is small for a few of the Capitals skaters, the stats presented in this post provide a good starting point (baseline) for tracking the stats over the course of the season.

The Capitals complete their season-long homestand on Friday night when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Capital One Arena. Puck drop is set for just after 7PM.

By Jon Sorensen