Our weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:
| Goalies | Trend | Notes |
| Jose Theodore | ▼ | Brutal week (0-1-0/7.17/.714) leaves his season numbers in tatters, but more important than just this week, JT60’s GAA and save percentage over the last five games: 4.29 and .850. Yikes. |
| Semyon Varlamov | ▲ | Don’t look now, but after a 2-0-0/1.02/.964 week (including a marathon shootout win), Varly has a GAA that’s half a goal better and a save percentage .019 better on the season than his main competition in D.C. More important? That 7-1-0 record. |
| Defensemen | ||
| John Erskine | – | Led the team in hits and was +1 against the Wild, scratched against Jersey. Such is the life of the sixth/seventh/eighth defenseman. |
| Mike Green | ▲ | A goal and four assists in three games and, with three points while up a man, the key to a power play that went 4-for-7 for the week. |
| Milan Jurcina | ▼ | Bad game against the Isles (including a bad penalty that led to the game-tying goal), out with a muscle pull for the next two. |
| Shaone Morrisonn | – | Led the team in hits against the Isles and blocked shots against the Devils. |
| Brian Pothier | ▲ | Continues to assert himself in the offensive zone with great results, including Friday night’s game-winner and seven shots on goal in three games. |
| Tom Poti | – | On the ice for five of the ten goals the Caps allowed on the week (including an empty netter). |
| Jeff Schultz | – | Missed two games, came back to do his thing in Jersey. |
| Swingman | ||
| Tyler Sloan | – | Skating as a blueliner for the two games he played this week, he didn’t show up much on the stat sheet… which isn’t a bad thing. |
| Forwards | ||
| Nicklas Backstrom | ▼ | Minus-5 rating and just one assist in three games (not to mention a 2-for-10 night in the dot Saturday). Think he’ll be happy when AO returns? |
| Matt Bradley | – | Solid work Friday night, a helper and the team’s only plus rating Saturday. |
| Chris Clark | ▲ | Assist streak ends at four on Friday, one game after his shootout winner. Eight shots in less than two games since the Knuble injury – a sign of things to come? |
| Eric Fehr | – | Points in four of five entering Saturday night, gets yet another chance to make an impact with Knuble out. |
| Tomas Fleischmann | – | Has pointed in every game since his return except the first and his three-point week includes a power play goal and two extra man helpers. But a minus-six rating on the week (minus-two against the Isles, minus-four in Jersey) prevents him from getting a green arrow here. |
| Boyd Gordon | – | Blink and you missed his return to the lineup and subsequent exit from it. |
| Mike Knuble | ▼ | An assist and minus-two rating against the Isles and a busted finger against the Wild. But the Caps got him for April, not November, so don’t worry too much. |
| Brooks Laich | – | An empty netter was his only point of the week, but 14 shots on goal is a nice number for three games. |
| Quintin Laing | – | Played the prototypical Q game on Friday night, didn’t do much on either end of it. |
| Brendan Morrison | ▲ | Points in five-straight, including power-play helpers in the past two games where he’s subbing for AO on the point (and doing quite well). |
| Michael Nylander | ● | The dreaded yellow circle of “What the hell, dude?” |
| Alex Ovechkin | – | Getting closer to playing, but not in the way that we’re all getting closer to dying – most expect the Great Eight in the lineup Tuesday night in Gotham. |
| Mathieu Perreault | ▲ | Goal, assist, plus-two for the week and has yet to have a minus rating in any of his six games. We’ll talk about those faceoffs some other time. |
| Alexander Semin |  |
Two goals against the Isles (and countless other fantastic chances) and one of the world’s worst turnovers against the Devs. He’s trending neither up nor down – he’s trending Sasha. |
| David Steckel | – | Dominating the dot (70% for the week and 83% against Minny), but still yet to find the back of the net. It’ll come, Stecks. |