Our weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:
Goalies | Trend | Notes |
Michal Neuvirth | Quietly solid in a huge bounce-back win in Edmonton. | |
Jose Theodore | A good game and a not-as-good game, but just two even strength goals against and 1-1-0/2.02/.917 week are solid numbers. | |
Semyon Varlamov | Sounded close to returning before a hopefully minor setback. | |
Defensemen | ||
Karl Alzner | Plus-two for the week and victimized by a bad bounce in Edmonton, Alzner’s development should continue to benefit from being paired with the likes of John Erskine and Tyler Sloan. Ahem. | |
John Erskine | A monster night in Colorado (assist, plus-three rating and 17 penalty minutes earned for sticking up for Mike Green), tougher time in Vancouver and a scratch in Edmonton. | |
Mike Green | Just one assist and six shots on goal for the week. Of course, he did miss half of the Colorado game because he forced David Koci to skate halfway across the ice and board him. Bad Greenie. | |
Milan Jurcina | Scratched twice, looked hungrier against Edmonton, leading the team in hits. | |
Shaone Morrisonn | Missed most of the Colorado game, returned to lead the team in hits against Vancouver, back out of the lineup Saturday night. Hmm… | |
Brian Pothier | Despite seven points from blueliners this week, the Caps miss his puck-moving ability on the back-end. | |
Tom Poti | Three games, plus-three rating, but a whopping four third period penalties (at least one in each game), including an inexcusable unsportsmanlike in Vancouver. | |
Jeff Schultz | Want a microcosm of Schultz’s career? Look no further than this week – a couple of memorable bloopers but a great job shutting down the Sedins and a positive plus-minus (though it should be noted that he was on the ice for four of the six goals the Caps allowed in the three games). | |
Swingman | ||
Tyler Sloan | Scratched twice, returned and notched an assist on the insurance tally Saturday night, but let’s be honest – his NHL time is running out. | |
Forwards | ||
Nicklas Backstrom | A couple of goals, an assist, a plus-one rating and nine shots on goal and 57% in the dot are all nice, but he’s got to take some of the blame for a power play that was just 1-for-9 on the week. | |
Matt Bradley | A goal, an assist and a plus-two rating in Colorado highlight the week for a guy who’s two-thirds of the way to tying his single-season best in goals. | |
Chris Clark | A Gordie Howe Hat Trick (ok, it took him three games to get it), an extra assist and a plus-three rating. Good stuff, Cap. | |
Eric Fehr | A couple of helpers and a plus-three rating for the week are nice, but Fehr has gone six games without a goal and only had five shots on goal for the week. Go to the net, young man. | |
Tomas Fleischmann | Three goals on the week (including Saturday night’s game-winner), but a bad penalty in Edmonton and being on the ice for half of the goals the team allowed in the three games take a bit of the shine off. | |
Boyd Gordon | On a conditioning assignment in Hershey, Gordo’s return looks imminent. | |
Mike Knuble | With a goal and an assist, Knuble seems to be getting his timing back. | |
Brooks Laich | Another week passes without Laich finding the net, something he’s only done once in his last 15 games (and his assist in Vancouver is his only point in his last seven games). | |
Quintin Laing | Q ate a steak this week and played an NHL game – he gets an up arrow. | |
Brendan Morrison | Just one assist on the week, his only point in the last seven games (oddly coinciding with Alex Ovechkin’s return to the lineup). | |
Alex Ovechkin | Every now and then (weekly, usually), you’re reminded why AO is the best player in the game. Saturday night’s third period was one such reminder. | |
Alexander Semin | Beat Roberto Luongo on a knuckler from near Whistler on Friday night, but was stuffed on a penalty shot later in the game and didn’t find his way onto the score sheet for the rest of the week (despite being on the ice for all three goals the top line scored on Saturday night). | |
David Steckel | A goal, plus-three rating and 7:59 of short-handed ice time without being on for a goal against. Can’t ask for much more from the guy, can you? | |
Kyle Wilson | Made his NHL debut on his 25th birthday with two assists and a strong all-around game. Wasn’t as good in Vancouver, was scratched in Edmonton, then reassigned to Hershey, but he looks like yet another fine fill-in. He’ll be back. |