Our weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:
Goalies | Trend | Notes |
Jose Theodore | 2-0-0/2.02/.944 for the week, 6-0-0/1.80/.939 since the Olympic break, and 16-0-2/2.40/.927 since January 13. Say, 16 wins without losing four of any seven-game stretch. Hmm… | |
Semyon Varlamov | It’s not that Varly was bad in Carolina – he was hung out to dry by his defense a couple of times and let in one bad goal – but losing a game you lead after two periods is exactly the kind of thing that can’t be happening in crunch time. | |
Defensemen | ||
John Carlson | Hit at least as many pipes (two) as goalies this week and continues to impress… when he’s not missing hip checks. | |
Joe Corvo | Scored twice in his Carolina homecoming (his three shots on goal against the ‘Canes were the most he’s had in a game as a Cap) and has four points in his last three games, but has yet to be a plus in any single game for the Caps. Huh. | |
John Erskine | No. Just no. | |
Mike Green | One assist, just two shots on goal, a minus-two rating, two minor penalties and on the ice for the last three goals the Caps have allowed (all at even strength, two at four-on-four). Obviously he’ll need to re-focus pretty soon. | |
Milan Jurcina | How’s the man-area, Juice? | |
Shaone Morrisonn | On the ice for half of the goals the Caps allowed on the week (all at even strength), despite being fourth or fifth among the team’s blueliners in ice time in each game. Not a good stat. | |
Tom Poti | A couple of plus-one’s disguise some uncharacteristically poor play from Poti, though he did play more than a dozen minutes on the penalty kill and was on the ice for only a single goal against, which came three-on-five. | |
Jeff Schultz | The NHL’s leader in plus-minus among defensemen hasn’t had a plus game since March 4 and has been a minus-one three times in the seven games since, including Thursday in Carolina. Throw in losing Vinny Lecavalier on the Bolts goal Saturday and Sarge gets a down arrow for the week. | |
Tyler Sloan | An assist, a big hit, three blocks and a plus-one rating in Florida? Up arrow for T-Slo. | |
Forwards | ||
Nicklas Backstrom | With a goal and four assists in three games, Backstrom continues to roll, putting an exclamation point on his week in Tampa with an indirect pass to Alex Ovechkin that reminded you just how special the slick Swede is. | |
Eric Belanger | Being on the ice for half of the eight goals the Caps allowed this week isn’t good. Neither were the back-to-back minus-ones he put up in Carolina and Tampa. Nor was his two-for-11 night in the face-off circle Saturday. | |
Matt Bradley | A couple of plus-one’s and a helper in Carolina. Brads is doing his best to stay among Bruce Boudreau‘s top-12 forwards. | |
Jason Chimera | Scored in Florida and had plenty of chances all week but failed to convert most of them (to be expected, I suppose) and ended up on the ice for four goals on the week (all at even strength), including the last three the Caps allowed. | |
Eric Fehr | Goal in Sunrise. Clutch goal in Carolina. Assist in Tampa. All in around 11:40 of total ice time and 23 seconds of power play time per game. He’s good; it’s Fehrified. | |
Tomas Fleischmann | Scored an early goal in Tampa, but had no points, three shots on goal and a minus-one rating for the rest of the week. | |
Boyd Gordon | His injury problems are, um, back. Not good. | |
Mike Knuble | He was bound to cool off, but no goals in his last eight games is a tough stretch for the now officially snake-bitten Knuble. | |
Brooks Laich | Two goals against the Kitties, assists in each game this week and a six-game point streak. Even better: the Tampa game was his first in seven in which he registered fewer than five shots on goal. Keep firing the biscuit, Brooksie. | |
Quintin Laing | Laing played against the Panthers. FYI. | |
Brendan Morrison | With one goal, four assists and a plus-three rating on the week, B-Mo put together his best three-game performance of the season, points-wise. | |
Alex Ovechkin | Returned from a two-game absence and scored a goal. Of course he did. | |
Alexander Semin | With two goals and an assist on the week, Semin is due for a big game real soon. How about Wednesday night? | |
David Steckel | One assist, plus-two and 7:49 of PK time without a goal allowed in two games. Hard to ask for much more than that out of Stecks. | |
Scott Walker | Fight a bigger guy who’s only in the League because of his willingness to be punched in the face, get a purple heart. Walker also had an assist in Raleigh. |