Lars Eller the tiger played a big role in the 2017-18 season
Matt Bachota & Sean Meekins
Lars Eller was most definitely an under rated player on the Washington Capitals roster. Eller, a center for the Caps, preformed well this season at the position. Like Beagle, he is not recognized much, but he gets his job done. He wins almost half of his face offs, and can score the puck in big situations. Lars Eller was a big component to the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup victory. Lars needed to step up multiple times this season for the Washington Capitals. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetzov both had gone down with injuries during the regular season and the playoffs. Eller stepped up big including a game in the Eastern Conference Final, when Kuzy went down during the first period. In that game Eller scored a goal and had two assists for a nice three point game. In the middle games in the Eastern Conference Final against Tampa Bay, Lars Eller had some penalty issues that cost the Capitals some goals on power plays. After he cleaned up his defensive skills, he was lights out. From the end of the Tampa Bay Lightning series until the end of the Stanley cup, he played stellar defense. On the offensive side, he put in a couple goals to help lead Washington to victory including the game winning and cup clinching goal with just over seven minutes to play in game five. Coming up in the 2018-2019 season, Lars Eller looks to keep the ball rolling on both sides of the puck.
Face Off Percentage- 49.27%
Shots- 161
Shot Percentage- 11.2%
Games Played- 81
