Our weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs (and yeah, we’ve used this picture before, but it’s so nice it deserved to be used twice):
Goalies | Trend | Notes |
Jose Theodore | After having not played in more than two weeks, Theo came back strong with a pair of road wins, a 2.00 GAA and a .947 save percentage for the week. The better he is this winter, the fresher Varly will be in the spring. | |
Semyon Varlamov | Seemed to lose his concentration a bit late against Florida, but 1-0-0/2.01/.929 keeps the train rollin’. | |
Defensemen | ||
Karl Alzner | Was on the ice for four of the six goals the Caps allowed last week. With the blueline getting healthier, Alzner once again finds himself the odd-man out – and on his way back to Hershey. | |
John Erskine | A plus-four rating for the week and not on the ice for a single goal against in 51:38 of ice time, which included 5:37 shorthanded. | |
Mike Green | Five points and a plus-four rating in three games, including four power play points on a unit that has scored seven times in the last two games. | |
Milan Jurcina | How do you end up with a minus-two rating for a week in which your team outscored its opponents 17-6? By being on the ice for five of those six goals against. | |
Shaone Morrisonn | On the trip to Tampa, so perhaps his return to the lineup is near. | |
Brian Pothier | Plus-two against Carolina, scratched against Philly. Huh. | |
Tom Poti | Returned to the lineup against the Flyers with twenty minutes of ice time and a pair of assists. | |
Jeff Schultz | Plus-three for the week, Jeff Cincocinco has only had two minus games since October 17 and is now in the top ten in the League in plus-minus (and is 12th among NHL blueliners in the stat since the start of the 2007-08 season). | |
Swingman | ||
Tyler Sloan | A penalty in each of this week’s three games, two of which were coincidental minors and one of which occurred with the Caps on the power play. | |
Forwards | ||
Nicklas Backstrom | Four goals, five assists and a plus-four rating in three games including a five-point game in Philly. | |
Matt Bradley | Scored his fifth goal of the season against Florida, equaling his goal total from a season ago, and took one for the team in a big way on Saturday night. | |
Chris Clark | A goal and an assist on the week, The Captain now has half as many goals and is one helper short of his production over the previous two seasons combined. Of course, that’s not saying much… other than that Clark is finally healthy. | |
Eric Fehr | Five points in three games, a six-game scoring streak (multi-point games in three of four), and 13 points in 13 games since returning from injury. | |
Tomas Fleischmann | Three goals in his last two games, he now has eight tallies in games which AO has been out of the lineup and just two when the Great Eight has dressed. Solution? Scratch him when AO’s a go. Just kidding. Sorta. | |
Alexandre Giroux | Ten shots on goal in the last two games, a plus-three rating and a helper in Carolina… but really, we’ve seen more than enough. | |
Boyd Gordon | Looking more and more like a lost season for Gordo. | |
Mike Knuble | Targeting a Wednesday return, but the way the team’s playing, no need to rush. | |
Brooks Laich | Three points, including a couple on the power play as Laich became the fourth Cap to hit double-digits in goals on the season (no other team has more than three, and several teams don’t have a single 10-goal guy yet). | |
Quintin Laing | Getting closer, which might spell the end of Tyler Sloan’s time in D.C. | |
Brendan Morrison | Four points on the week and more points on the campaign than he had in 62 games for the Ducks a season ago. | |
Michael Nylander | If Nylander was a classic SNL skit, I’m pretty sure he’d be this one. | |
Alex Ovechkin | Just one goal in the three games the Caps played last week- anyone hear anything to explain why his production was so limited? | |
Mathieu Perreault | Seven games without a point (granted, his linemates haven’t been the type with which skill pivots normally succeed), but he’s still doing some things… little things. | |
Alexander Semin | Has returned to the lineup with six points in two games, including four on the red-hot power play. Key stat: the power play is 30.3% successful in Semin’s twenty games played and at just 9.1% in the nine he’s missed. | |
David Steckel | The monkey’s off his back… now let’s see some more. |