Capital Ups and Downs, Week 14: Holtby, Second Line Rise; Fourth Sinks

Your weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:

Goalies	Trend	Notes
Pheonix Copley		Blink and you missed him, Copley was recalled to sit on the bench on Saturday, and he sure did a solid job of it. As an FYI, he’s 6-3-1/2.00/.921 with two shutouts in 11 games for Hershey this season.
Braden Holtby		Ho-hum, another great week for Holtby, this one producing a 2-0-1/2.00/.935 line and a franchise record for consecutive appearances (now at 24 games). Holtby is now 12-1-4/2.04/.933 in 17-straight starts since losing to Vancouver to open December. Is this type of performance still worthy of an up arrow, or is he meeting adjusted expectations at this point?
Justin Peters		Sent to Hershey on a conditioning assignment, Peters pitched a 24-save shutout on Friday night and followed it up with a 31-for-34 losing effort last night (with two of those goals-against coming on the power play). Hopefully he puts up similar numbers in his next start(s) for the Caps (who recalled him earlier today, as expected).
Defensemen
Karl Alzner		Alzner was on the ice for the Detroit goal Saturday night, snapping a streak of 11 games during which he played 172 even-strength minutes and wasn’t on for a single-goal against (and was only on for one opposition power-play tally in roughly 23 minutes of shorthanded work). He really seems to be coming into his own under Barry Trotz and Todd Reirden‘s tutelage (like we said he would).
John Carlson		Picked up two helpers in Toronto and the eventual game-winning goal back home against Detroit as his speedy march towards career highs continues. Carlson is now third among the League’s defensemen in assists, fourth in points, and sixth in plus-minus (first since November 27). How is he not an All-Star? (Be wary, though – he had a rough week in terms of possession, including a career-worst night against the Flyers in one metric, and his puck luck won’t last forever.)
John Erskine		This season continues to be one big buzzkill for Big John.
Mike Green		Had an assist against the Leafs and another couple against the Flyers, but was up-and-down (or, more accurately, down-and-up-and-down) in terms of five-on-five possession for the week. Part of the reason has to be his defensive partners – in the two games for which Jack Hillen dressed, Green had relative Corsi-For percentages (CF%) of -4.8 and -2.3; in the one (Philly) for which Nate Schmidt dressed, Green was at +14.1. For the season, Green has a 54.3 CF% with Schmidt and 43.9% with Hillen. So why has Hillen played eight of the last ten?
Jack Hillen		Had a three-game point-string (hopefully that’s not the answer to the semi-rhetorical question in the last blurb) snapped against the Leafs, sat out the Flyers game, and returned against the Wings. Hillen isn’t the worst option imaginable as a sixth defenseman… but when the Caps have at least one clearly better alternative, it’s frustrating to see him draw in so frequently.
Matt Niskanen		Cruising along in that second pair with Alzner… and somehow is the lower-scoring of the two at even-strength. Heck, he also has fewer even-strength points than long-time teammate Brooks Orpik. How is that even possible? We knew Niskanen wouldn’t be putting up big numbers this year, due to reduced power-play time, and his play overall has been quite good… but c’mon, dude… light a lamp before it becomes a thing.
Dmitry Orlov		More like Ornot, amirite?
Brooks Orpik		Like Carlson, Orpik is riding some serious puck luck, but would you have guessed that since Thanksgiving, only Carlson has a better five-on-five Goals-For plus-minus, and only Carlson and Victor Hedman have been on the ice for more five-on-five goals-for? Obviously Orpik isn’t driving that offense, but we’ll take the results… and be ready for some regression.
Nate Schmidt		Sent to Hershey for the weekend, Schmidt picked up two goals and an assist on Saturday night in his first AHL game of the season. All was going swimmingly… then, on Sunday night, Schmidt was injured and will miss 6-8 weeks. Not good.
Forwards
Nicklas Backstrom		Deflected an Alzner shot past Steve Mason in Philly, and picked up a secondary helper on the Carlson goal against Detroit. It wasn’t Backstrom’s best week in terms of possession or on-ice results (he was on for four of the six goals the Caps allowed on the week, but also a team-high five of the 11 they scored), but he’s had a great year so far and Trotz is absolutely correct (as is Eric Fehr) that leaving him off the All-Star team yet again is lunacy.
Jay Beagle		Had an assist in Toronto (who didn’t?) and continues to see spot duty on the top line, especially when the Caps are defending a lead, but isn’t getting much going lined up between Jason Chimera and Tom Wilson on the fourth line.
Troy Brouwer		One of last week’s big themes was the strong play of the second line, and Brouwer contributed to that with a couple of helpers against the Leafs in one of the trio’s best outings of the season. He also was gifted a goal to start the game against the Wings, his first since winning the Winter Classic (we’ll take any excuse to reference that).
Andre Burakovsky		Played all three games (which is a good thing in and of itself) on the top line and played well, for the most part, picking up a beautiful primary assist (that demonstrated patience and vision) on the Carlson goal to show for it.
Jason Chimera		Didn’t manage a five-on-five shot attempt in any of the three games, has only one shot on goal in his last seven games and doesn’t have a point in his last nine. Chimera simply isn’t helping the team right now.
Eric Fehr		Had two goals and an assist in Toronto and another assist against Detroit with a pretty bad game against Philadelphia in between. Fehr’s CF% was below 40% in each of the week’s three games, and his Relative CF% was negative in each, so that’s a soft green arrow for the production, even if the process wasn’t particularly good (as was the case with the team, generally, really).
Marcus Johansson		Had the best Relative CF% of any Cap who played all three games, two goals against the Leafs and an assist against the Flyers and was on the ice for four Caps goals and no opposition markers. Johnsson’s 11 even-strength tallies are just two shy of his career high and already more than twice as many as he had in the last two seasons combined.
Evgeny Kuznetsov		Right there with Johansson in terms of possession… but not results – Kuznetsov had at least three Grade-A scoring chances against the Wings but was unable to convert any of them. Still, he’s looking more comfortable at center by the week and if he continues to shoot, the points will come – Kuznetsov had more five-on-five shot attempts last week (12) than in his previous six games combined (11).
Brooks Laich		With a goal against Toronto an an assist against Detroit, Laich has five points in his last seven games, as productive a five-on-five stretch as he’s had in a looooong time.
Michael Latta		Scratch City, population: Lats.
Alex Ovechkin		Had his streak of one-goal/one-assist games snapped at three against the Leafs, when he “only” managed a goal, as he did the next night against the Flyers. Somehow, he still made the All-Star team.
Aaron Volpatti		Volpatti seems ready to rejoin the Caps, but the feeling doesn’t appear to be mutual.
Joel Ward		Had gone nine games without a goal prior to scoring on Saturday night.
Tom Wilson		Hasn’t registered a point in 11 games or a shot on goal in five and was underwater in possession for the week. It’s unlikely that any of that is going to change dramatically as he toils away on the fourth line.