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Getting to Know a Capital: Marcus Johansson

A short series in which we dive into some of the lesser known Washington players to gain some insight as the Penguins prepare to face the Capitals in their second round playoff series.

By Mike Darnay
Patrick Smith/Getty Images

For the first time after seeing the Rangers in every playoff game for almost 2 calendar years and 17 total games, the Pittsburgh Penguins finally get to play a fresh playoff opponent. So let's dust off this old feature to kill time and preview the Washington Capitals.

Name: Marcus Johansson

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 205 lbs

Born: October 6th, 1990 (25 years old)

Drafted: WSH 1st Round 2009, 24th Overall

2015-16 stat line: 74 games played, 17 goals, 29 assists, 16 penalty minutes

2014-15 playoff stat line: 14 GP, 1G, 3A

2015-16 stats vs Penguins: 5 GP, 2G

2015-16 5v5 Advanced Stats: 49.4 CF%, -2.0% Corsi Relative, 101.7 PDO

Player detail (via The Hockey News Player Page)

2015-16 Washington Capitals player usage, via War on Ice

HERO Chart (via Domenic Galamini):

Analysis: Johansson is a good player. He's smart and skilled and considering his 3.75M cap hit, I'd take that for a ~50 point player who's versatile and useful on any line, as well as a guy who is producing at 2nd/3rd line rates as well as 2nd/3rd line level possession metrics.

Most common line mates: The two forwards that Johansson spends the most time with are Justin Williams and Evgeny Kuznetsov. As far as I'm concerned, anyone playing with Kuznetsov can be dangerous. What a player.

Why you should know who he is: To me, I admittedly don't know a ton of details on Johansson, aside from the main stuff I've seen when he plays against Pittsburgh. But I do know that Jimmy, our site manager here gave me some insight from some Caps people, notably Rob at Japers Rink, that Johansson is used as a glue piece for the Capitals. Whenever they have a line that's struggling, he gets moved to that line, and helps solve their problems. That's a nice kind of skill set to have.

How the Pens can stop him: I....don't know. Lol. Honestly, I don't know enough about his game to know what he thrives on and what he doesn't. But as we noted with Burakovsky, it all centers around Kuznetsov. Need to limit his abilities to make plays.

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