Among the many moving parts that have made the Capitals so good this season is defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who is having a breakout first season in DC after coming over in a trade during the offseason.
This is his fourth double-digit goal season in his career, but with 12 tallies and 18 helpers as of last night, he’s well on pace to pass his career highs of 18 goals, 27 assists, and 41 total points – and pretty good to be doing it in a contract year.
“It’s been a great fit. I think it's definitely been really good to start the year with Carly, and since we’ve bounced around partners a little bit, but I just think the fit's been really good,” Chychrun told G&D in Wednesday’s Beltway Blitz. “We have a lot of depth on our back end and we've been able to kind of distribute the minutes pretty evenly, and we have six D-men on the ice at any time that can play in all zones on the ice and really join the attack. For me personally, the fit has been good; I’ve been contributing for years, and it’s a big part of my game to try to help offensively when I can, and my shot is a big part of my game. Just feeling like when I get an opportunity to score, I do my best to bear down. When you’re playing well as a team, there's a lot of guys individually that will stand out, so I just think it's a credit to the way that the teams are playing.”
The Caps lead the NHL in points per game and that Chychrun slap shot is one of the best, and Danny’s loved seeing those missiles.
“I spent a lot of time working on it as a kid, just a lot of reps and a lot of dedication to getting stronger at a young age and just working on your craft,” Chychrun said. “You can come take a look at our home in Florida – the garage has taken a beating with pucks, so my dad had to put up a few tarps and repair a few broken windows, but that’s what it takes to get to the next level. I spent a lot of hours in the garage working on my shot, and it's something I still enjoy doing to this day – just kind of working on it and picking a spot and trying to hit it hard and accurate. That's kind of the two things I try to focus on.”
Grant loves it to and so does his son, who, if he had his druthers, would keep Chychrun here for a long time.
“Hopefully! We’ll see how things go,” Chychrun said. “We love it here, we really do. We love the group, we love the staff – there’s a lot of familiar faces throughout my time in the NHL that are in this organization who I've been with in the past, and that made the transition a lot smoother – and we've loved living here. We love living in Virginia and driving by the White House every day, which is really cool, and it’s been a blast. The contract stuff, I’m not the one on the phone, I just try to focus on preparing each night and just helping this club with hockey games. As long as we're doing that, I know all the other stuff will take care of itself, but we have loved our time here so far and hopefully, all that other stuff gets taken care of soon.”