In his 109th game with the Capitals, Jensen finally has a goal originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Capitals acquired Nick Jensen on Feb. 22, 2019 in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings. Prior to Sunday's game, he did not have a single goal in the 108 games he had played with Washington.
Finally, in Game 109 on Sunday, he found the back of the net against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-1 Capitals win.
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"It was exciting," Jensen said. "It's been a while"
The play really started with Zdeno Chara who gave a two-handed shove to Joel Farabee in the neutral zone and knocked him to the ice. The Flyers took exception to the hit, but they seemed more focused on Chara than they were with the puck.
The Caps carried the puck into the offensive zone against a completely disjointed Philadelphia defense where it was handed off to Jensen who was alone on the right side of the ice. With no one coming to challenge him, Jensen had all the time and room in the world and fired a nice wrister to beat goalie Carter Hart.
"At the start of the play, it started with Chara making a great defensive play on the blue line and then he took two guys out of the play kind of with some physicality," Jensen said. "That allowed me to get up in the play and then from there, [Nicklas] Backstrom is a play-maker, he made plays and then just hit me wide open and I had it all day to take a shot."
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Washington knew it wasn't getting a Mike Green type of player when it acquired Jensen, but he did score six goals with the Detroit Red Wings over 190 games so no one really expected his first goal with the Caps to take quite as long as it did.
But really, it is fitting that he should score it now as Jensen is playing his best hockey since he was acquired in 2019.
"I think he's confident right now with his game," head coach Peter Laviolette said. "We're really happy with the way he's playing. He's skating really well. He's moving the puck. He's doing the right things. He's really strong defensively. He's good on the penalty kill and it was nice to see him, for all of the work that he does, to get rewarded with a goal tonight. It was a beauty, too."
Jensen now has one goal and three assists in his last six games. HIs eight points already matches his season total from last year.
A lot of that has to do with being paired with Zdeno Chara. Having a defensive-minded partner like Chara on the ice with him allows Jensen more freedom to jump into the offensive play. It is fitting then that Chara had such an integral role in Jensen's goal on Sunday.
Still, while Jensen is excited about the goal, he knows his job is defense first so he's not overly concerned with the offensive numbers.
"I definitely think it's a good sign for sure, but I've always been a guy who tries to play the game the right way and I don't typically use statistics, points as an indicator of how I'm playing," Jensen said. "There's been times I've played good and I'm not getting points and I'm not going to change things just because I'm not getting points. So I'm more about the process of playing just good hockey."
