Our weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:
| Goalies | Trend | Notes |
| Michal Neuvirth |  |
It doesn’t get more monstrous than the week Neuvy put together: 2-0-0/0.86/.974. He’s now 3-0-0/1.20/.963 since getting yanked in Sunrise… and now back in Hershey. |
| Jose Theodore | |
Missed the middle of the week due to a minor injury, but ended the week 2-0-0/2.40/.915 overall and is now 7-0-0/2.08/.938 in his last seven appearances. |
| Semyon Varlamov |  |
Feeling “very, very good,” armed with a new mask and likely headed to Hershey (at least that was the plan). |
| Defensemen | ||
| Karl Alzner |  |
Yo-yo’d back to Hershey after a nondescript performance on the Island. |
| John Erskine | |
A goal and an assist is a great month for Erskine, so to have one of each in Tuesday night’s game was pretty remarkable. Throw in a plus-four rating and leading the team in hits in three of the four games while taking just one minor in his last five games and Big John is doing everything that’s being asked of him (unless, of course, they’re asking him not to make cross-ice passes in his own zone… but we’ll let that slide). |
| Mike Green |  |
Two assists, plus-four… and a suspension for the kind of hit that has no place in the game. |
| Shaone Morrisonn | |
Like Erskine, Mo broke a long goal-less drought and added a helper in an otherwise uneventful week. |
| Brian Pothier | |
Returned to the lineup to face Anaheim and seems to still be working back up to game speed after two weeks off. |
| Tom Poti | |
Poti played the first 11 periods of the week without being on the ice for a goal against, ended up plus-five for the week, and added a helper on Sunday’s game-winner (his tenth third-period point of the season). |
| Jeff Schultz | |
Goal, assists, plus-7 – all in a week’s work for Sarge, who hasn’t been on the ice for a goal against in his last three games (and hasn’t been on the ice for an even-strength-goal-against in four), and didn’t commit a single minor in more than 74 minutes of ice time this week. |
| Tyler Sloan | |
Did some good things in his one game this week (Sunday versus Tampa), including a couple of nice defensive efforts on Vinny and Marty. |
| Forwards | ||
| Nicklas Backstrom | |
Two goals (the second of which set a new single-season career best with 23), five assists, plus-six, 18 shots on goal and a 56.3 faceoff win percentage on the week. He’s good. |
| Matt Bradley | |
No points and a minus-two rating would normally warrant a down arrow, but fighting Anaheim’s Mike Brown brings Brads level. |
| Jason Chimera | |
A goal, an assist and a plus-three rating against the Isles, but little else for the week. |
| Eric Fehr | |
Like linemate Chimera, had a couple of points and a plus-three in Uniondale and then went relatively quiet. |
| Tomas Fleischmann | |
Five assists and a plus-three rating on the week, but three minor penalties and on the ice for three of the six goals the Caps allowed over the four-game span (two of which were at even strength). |
| Boyd Gordon | |
Like Flash, on the ice for half of the goals the Caps allowed on the week, but didn’t chip in anything on offense to mitigate it. That said, 12-for-14 weeks on the PK – like the one the Caps just had – weren’t happening too often when he was injured. |
| Mike Knuble | |
Four goals, two assists and a plus-five rating have Caps fans day-dreaming of what might be come playoff time. |
| Brooks Laich | |
Laich’s two even strength goals for the week (to go along with a helper and a plus-four rating) were as many as he had in his previous 32 games. |
| Quintin Laing | |
Hasn’t played since the first game of the win streak. |
| Brendan Morrison | |
A goal and an assist and not much else… which is alright for a $1.5 million third-line center. |
| Alex Ovechkin | |
Two goals, four assists and a plus-five rating aren’t huge numbers for Ovi, but he gets the up arrow for playing 79:49 without being on the ice for a single goal against. In fact, AO hasn’t been on the ice for a goal against in the last six games and change (more than 125 minutes of ice time). |
| Alexander Semin | |
Has his eighth and ninth two-goal games on the season (only Patrick Marleau has more) in the week’s first two games and added a pair of helpers in the last two. To put that first part in perspective, Semin has as many multi-goal games this season as the Rangers’ fourth-leading goal scorer has total goals. |
| David Steckel | |
You’d like to see a little more offense out of Stecks, but his two-goal/four-point January actually ties his career one-month highs in both categories. |