Look Both Ways

More than a third of the way into the 2021-22 NHL season, the Caps find themselves near the top of the League's standings in spite of a rash of injuries and absences of a number of key players from their lineup.

The reasons for Washington's success to this point are many; the team's best players have been - when healthy - its best players, starting with captain Alex Ovechkin and going right down the lineup. A host of young players called up from AHL Hershey has helped the Caps plug holes in their lineup, and the team's defense has been steady and consistent through most of the campaign to date, improving from 17th in the circuit in goals against last season to seventh this season, and from 11th to second in shots allowed.
In particular though, a pair of the team's defensemen has excelled while drawing some hard duty this season.
In June of 2009, the NHL Draft was held in Montreal. A total of 211 players were chosen, including 70 defensemen. Of those 70 blueliners, exactly half (35) played in at least one NHL game, and 23 of them played in at least 100 games in the League. Seventeen of those defensemen from the class of 2009 are still active in the League this season.
Two of those 17 active members of the blueline draft class of 2009 are here in Washington, comprising the Caps' top shutdown pairing. Dmitry Orlov was the Caps' second-round (55th overall) choice in that '09 Draft, and his blueline partner Nick Jensen was Detroit's fifth-round choice (150th overall) in that draft. More than a decade after that weekend in Montreal, the two defensemen - both of whom have overcome their fair share of adversity along the way - are at the top of their respective games and are key components in Washington's much-improved defense.
Caps coach Peter Laviolette deploys the duo as a shutdown pair, playing them against the opposition's top lines and loading them up with defensive-zone face-offs and defensive-zone starts. Of the two dozen NHL defensive duos who have skated at least 350 minutes together this season at 5-on-5, the Jensen-Orlov tandem has had by far the lowest rate of starts in the offensive zone (32.73 percent). And despite starting so many shifts in their own end of the ice, the duo has been on the ice for 24 goals for and only eight goals against, for a goals for rate of 75 percent, which is also tops - and also by far - among those 24 pairings.
In short, they've been shutting down the opposition's best players while making more than their fair share of contributions to the team's offensive cause.
"They've been a pair that we've really counted on," says Laviolette. "Everybody has to play against everybody, but oftentimes they find themselves in the defensive zone against top opponents. And that makes the job a little bit difficult, because you've got to play against other teams' best, and then you've got to move it down 200 feet.
"They're both really strong defenders. They're both really strong on their feet, strong players. They can compete hard against those top lines and I think they've done an excellent job, and yet they're still generating offense; they still find a way to move the needle to the offensive zone. They've done a terrific job."
Jensen came to the Caps in a Feb. 22, 2019 trade with the Red Wings. Initially, Jensen was paired with Brooks Orpik upon arriving in the District, but he has played a fair number of minutes alongside Orlov in each of his seasons here, and always to good effect. But this season the tandem has been paired together right from the start of the season, and it has taken its performance to another level.
"I think the biggest thing that we talked as a staff was that we wanted to make sure that Marty [Fehervary] had that veteran guy with him that could help him," says Caps assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, discussing the philosophy behind the Caps' defensive pairings. "And [John Carlson] is a perfect partner for Marty because of the fact that John really keeps control of his emotions, and we needed a guy that was going to be able to come back between shifts and be able to talk to Marty. And I think he's done an excellent job with Marty, both in communication and playing together.
"And then we look at the second pairing, and we just felt that two of our best defenders were Orly and Jens and we felt that we could put those two against other teams' top lines, and their mission would be to shut down the team's top lines, and plus provide us with that 200-foot game that they can play. They just gelled right from the start. And in this day and age, you've got to be able to skate as a defenseman and as a pair. Not only do they defend well, but they also can get up in the play and add to the rushes, and they do a really good job in in the offensive zone as well. The thought process was that those two guys together could play some big minutes, go against the top lines, and still provide offense."
They've done exactly that and then some.
As Laviolette notes, Jenson and Orlov have similar attributes: they're both great skaters, they both compete and defend hard consistently, both have the ability to move the puck and make good plays and decisions, and both can be physical when necessary.
But they have their differences as well.
Orlov is homegrown and he just cracked the team's all-time top five in games played by a Caps-drafted defenseman. He is now tied with Hockey Hall of Famer Scott Stevens (601), which places him behind only Carlson, Kevin Hatcher, Sergei Gonchar and Brendan Witt among games played for the Capitals by Washington-drafted defensemen.
Orlov is already just the ninth defenseman to play in as many as 10 seasons with the Capitals. Along with Ovechkin, Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom, Orlov is one of only four players remaining whose careers stretches back to Bruce Boudreau's days with the Caps. Despite some devastating injuries early in his career, Orlov has now played in 601 NHL games, ranking eighth among those 70 defensemen chosen in the '09 Draft.
As a second-rounder, Orlov debuted in the NHL at the age of 20 in 2011-12 after playing just 34 games for AHL Hershey.
Jensen came to the Caps in a trade nearly three years ago, and after spending almost a decade in the Detroit system. The Red Wings drafted Jensen in the fifth round in '09, making the selection two weeks after their second straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final ended up with a Game 7 loss to Pittsburgh. Jensen joined a stacked but aging Detroit team, and though he is nearly a year older than Orlov, he did not make his NHL debut until he was 26 years old. And even then - in the midst of his fourth pro season and after skating in 225 minor league games - Jensen's debut came under the strangest of circumstances and he wasn't sure it was actually going to happen until the moment he set foot on the ice, almost exactly five years ago.
"I had a pretty unique first NHL game experience," recounts Jensen. "I finally got called up, and I was an extra guy. Someone ended up getting hurt in the pregame skate, so I was getting dressed for that game that night (Dec. 19, 2016), and it was in Carolina. And then something broke with the ice generator, so the game ended up getting [postponed], and I thought to myself, 'Maybe it's not meant to be.'
"I ended up playing the next game after that [in Tampa Bay on Dec. 20, 2016], but I've never seen an NHL game get canceled, and of course it was on that first NHL game for me. It was a pretty unique experience for me, but now I can look back on it and laugh about it, and here I am."
Jensen never went back to the AHL after finally getting that first recall.
As a 20-year-old rookie in 2011-12, Orlov quickly proved his mettle. Recalled in November, he stayed with the team for the remainder of the regular season and skated nearly 17 minutes a night. But when the playoffs rolled around, then-coach Dale Hunter suddenly benched him, and Orlov didn't play in any of Washington's 14 postseason games that spring.
Orlov skated in 60 games as an NHL rookie, showing tantalizing glimpses of the player he could and would become. But it would take more than three years for him to play in his next 60 NHL games.
When a lockout delayed the start of the 2012-13 season, Orlov was sent to Hershey where he could continue his development until NHL play resumed. But in a midseason game with the Bears, Orlov suffered a concussion that kept him out of action for three months, limiting him to just five NHL games in that truncated 48-game season.
With Adam Oates behind the Washington bench, Orlov fell out of favor and found himself almost constantly shuttled between Hershey and Washington at the start of the 2013-14 season, the only season in which the Caps have not made the playoffs during Orlov's tenure in the organization.
Orlov did not make Washington's opening night roster that season; he was assigned to Hershey days before the season opener in Chicago when the Caps went with Karl Alzner, Carlson, teenaged rookie Connor Carrick, John Erskine, Mike Green and Jack Hillen as their six defensemen against the defending Cup champs in the Windy City. Orlov was recalled in late October, and he was recalled four more separate times before finally playing in his first game of the season in late November, as he had done as a rookie in '11-12. And as he did in his freshman season, Orlov quickly proved he belonged in the NHL and he stayed in Washington for the rest of the season.
With Washington out of the playoffs for the first time since 2007, Orlov went to the 2014 IIHF World Championships, held in Minsk, Bulgaria. Although he represented a Russian team that won gold medals at that tournament, Orlov broke his wrist there. Even worse, subsequent surgery on the wrist led to an infection that cost him the entirety of the 2014-15 NHL season. Orlov's only game action in '14-15 was comprised of three late-season games in Hershey, the last of his 79 career games at the AHL level.
Orlov spent most of that season skating and rehabbing and working out on his own after team practices in Arlington.
Meanwhile, Jensen was in his second pro season and playing with Grand Rapids of the AHL after a three-game detour to the ECHL the season before. For the better part of four seasons, Jensen worked and watched as virtually every other defense prospect was promoted to Detroit while he remained in Grand Rapids.
"It wasn't me thinking I wasn't good enough; it was more me thinking I wouldn't get an opportunity," Jensen recalls. "I was getting a little older than some of the younger prospects that were seen as being ahead of me at the time in Detroit, and when there's opportunity to get called up and you see younger guys getting called up over you, and being a little bit older than them, it's obviously discouraging, and it doesn't send a good message to me that anyone wants me out there at all.
"But timing was everything with that. Guys got hurt, and I was next in line and all the younger guys ahead of me were all called up already. And then I got called up and was just going to be an extra, but then one of the guys gets a stick or a puck in the face at the pregame morning skate. And then I end up going in, and it was a long day, long story. Carolina. Game got canceled. Then I got to play the next game, and I felt like it was a good game. But I still didn't think it was going to keep playing in this league. I was like, 'It's one game. Let's see what happens.' I don't know if I'm going to be sent down here. I don't know.
"There's a 10-game rule where if you get sent down, you have to go through waivers. And I'm like, 'I don't know if I'm going to get 10 games, probably not.' And I just kept going and going, and I just never really looked back. And I've been up ever since. It's been a pretty interesting adventure in that aspect, and it's all led me here. It's been a good journey so far."
Jensen's journey also led to a fortuitous pairing with future Hall of Famer Zdeno Chara when the big blueliner signed to play in Washington last season.
"When Z came in and we put together that pairing, our thought process was we wanted to give Jens that steady guy," says McCarthy. "And Z is the kind of guy that really wanted to talk between shifts and communicate, and that's what Jens needed. He needed somebody that he could do talk to, and if he made a mistake, Z could talk him through it and build that confidence.
"I thought that was the biggest thing that Z did for Jens, was to talk to him and tell him that if you make a mistake, don't worry about it. Just concentrate on the next shift, and they would talk about it on the bench. I think that really helped him last year, and it has carried into this year as well."
Jensen's overall game had been on the rise for a long time before Chara's arrival, but it's gone to another level this season.
"The biggest thing for me," Jensen begins, "I always play my best hockey when I'm playing with another guy who is skating, moving, and we're both moving our feet and we're able to move all over the ice and supporting the puck. And close support is probably the biggest thing. So when I'm sprinting to my corner, or Orlov is sprinting to his corner, I'm sprinting over there to support him. And being able to move that quick and get into a support position to offer a stick to just relieve some of the pressure is one of the biggest, most effective ways to kind of manage the forecheck and get into those breakout situations.
"So that's probably my takeaway from that, just that ability to skate and support each other is probably one of the reasons why we have been successful. And Snarls is able to do it on its own, too. A lot of time you'll watch him, and he'll use his feet and his body to just break out the pucks by himself, and I'm there if he needs me. But he's done it his whole career and that's why he's been in this league for such a long time because he's able to do that."
All that said, the partnership with Chara was also beneficial for Jensen.
"Z also covers a lot of ground, but in a different way," says Jensen. "It's a little different but at the same time he was similar with really using your [defense] partner to break pucks out, so a lot of support. I was always there, and he was always there. When you've got the puck and you've got guys all over you, and you know your [defense] partner is right there to support you, it makes it a lot easier.
"When our team gets away from those things is when we get kind of stretched out, like our center man is a little higher, or our wing is a little higher, the other winger is kind of pushed out to the blue line while the other [defense] partner is in the corner and I think that's when things get really tough to break the puck out. You're on an island in the corner, and you've got guys all over you, you're trying to keep the puck on your stick, you've got three guys in your face trying to hit you, and then you try to make a play that's 100 feet away. Those aren't easy plays, so when [defense] partners are able to come over and support each other with short plays and little bumps, it makes it a lot easier to break the puck out."
In a show of how their on-ice chemistry extends to off the ice, Orlov echoes some of Jensen's thoughts on the pair's success.
"If we're going to be able to keep that game for the whole season it's going to be great for us," says Orlov. "Right now it's a fast game, fast hockey and I think the top teams in the League are skating teams, who use their legs and support each other, and it makes a difference in this League.
"It's our role, and yeah, we take a lot of [defensive] zone draws. Coaches believe in us and give us these opportunities. It means a lot to be able to play these minutes and we try to work hard and be good, have success for our team, and play hard in the [defensive] zone. If the team gets the puck, we try to get closer and quicker and get the puck stopped, and then we can do our [defensive] zone and get the puck and get out. It's a big part of our system and a big focus. It doesn't matter if you're tired or not tired, you can't just follow the guy all the time in the [defensive] zone. It has to be the whole team and always stick on the ice, try to be hard on the stick and hard on the body. If you're going to do that one-on-one, then other players pick it up and it's kind of a systematic read, and you have to get it to be automatic all the time."
Both Orlov and Jensen took crooked roads to reach and remain in the NHL. Both are survivors. Jensen is the latest-drafted defenseman from the 2009 Draft who is still in the League, and he is the only defenseman drafted in the fifth round or later that year to play in more than 16 games. Jensen now stands at 363 career games, a couple hundred games behind his younger partner, with nearly half that total coming in a Washington uniform.
It took a lot of grit and determination for both Jensen and Orlov to reach and remain in the NHL, and to work past all of their respective career road blocks. These days, they show that same grit and determination on every shift.
"I think they descript what our game plan is," says Carlson of the Jensen-Orlov duo. "They fit perfectly into the scheme of playing quick in the defensive zone and being in people's face all the time, and I think that's some of their best qualities, both of them. And they're joining the attack and being aggressive up the ice, and I think it's working, and it's working great. They're both playing unbelievable. And they're stereotypical of what the coach brings to us every day in terms of how he wants us to play the game, and they're getting rewarded."