Your weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:
[Ed. Note: Rink Rank totals do not include results from last night’s game.]
| Goalies | Trend | Rink Rank* | Notes |
| Braden Holtby |  |
 81.5% |
Followed up back-to-back games in which he gave up just one goal each (including a 44-save effort against the Pens) with back-to-back games of three goals against in a rare mini-stretch of looking semi-human. Thankfully, his team was there to bail him out on both occasions… just as he’s done for them so many times this year. |
| Philipp Grubauer |  |
98.7% |
He only had to face seven shots in relief of Holtby Friday night, but he turned aside all seven of them (including a huge, athletic stop at one end that set up a goal at the other end), allowing the Caps to climb back into the game and ultimately get the win. |
| Defensemen | |||
| Karl Alzner |  |
90.5% |
Was on the ice for four of the week’s eight goals against overall (three at even strength). More troubling, though, is the fact that he and Niskanen continue to give up some tough opportunities in their own zone, as the duo combined for 30 high-danger scoring chances by opponents at even strength this week; no other D pair had more than 17. |
| John Carlson | |
90.5% |
After a brief dry spell in November, Carlson’s offense is back and better than ever, and a five-point week (two goals, three assists) has him rolling right along with 14 points in his last 14 games. That’s just about enough to make us ignore the fact that the 79 shots going towards his own net while he was on the ice led all Caps’ blueliners. |
| Taylor Chorney | |
65.8% |
Chorney was on for just one goal against this week, and actually picked up a couple of assists for his best offensive stretch of games since potting helpers in back-to-back games about a month ago. He also picked up his first career NHL (regular-season) fight when he dropped the gloves with Pittsburgh’s Nick Bonino, making him the second blueliner to do so in the last two weeks. |
| Matt Niskanen | |
89.5% |
Like Alzner, Niskanen is having some struggles in the defensive end; unlike Alzner, he’s not contributing at the other end of the ice, as he was again held with no points on the week, one of just two blueliners to be kept off the scoresheet. He’s now mired in a season-long eight-game pointless streak. |
| Dmitry Orlov | |
72.4% |
A two-assist game against the Rangers rounded out a three-point week for Orlov, who seems to be back in the offensive swing of things. One thing to keep an eye on, however, is that he’s not shooting nearly enough (especially someone for whom that’s a pretty good weapon). He has just one shot on goal in his last five games, and managed just seven shot attempts overall over the last four. |
| Brooks Orpik |  |
N/A | Whether or not it is the reason for the Caps’ recent slip in possession numbers can be debated, but his absence is still felt. |
| Nate Schmidt | |
90.2% |
Had a rare stumble for a guy who has been filling in rather well on the top defensive pair in general, as he picked up no points on the week and had just a 36.7 CF% at even strength, second-lowest among (ahead of only defensive partner Carlson). |
| Forwards | |||
| Nicklas Backstrom | |
95.9% |
A three-assist performance (including a ridiculous billiard-shot bounce off the boards to set up Oshie’s goal) in the comeback against the Rangers rounded out a seven-point week for the Caps’ top pivot. Among those seven points just happened to be the 600th of his career, an unselfish assist on Oshie’s empty-netter, and he now leads the Caps with 31 pts (in 29 games, two fewer games than the second guy on that list, Alex Ovechkin). |
| Jay Beagle | |
82.0% |
Picked up an assist against the Pens, but not much else to speak of for Beagle beyond a faceoff win hovering just below 50% this week (27 wins and 28 losses). He was on for three goals against, which isn’t ideal, but two of those goals were on the power play. |
| Chris Brown | /cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/569564/hershey-kiss.png?w=640&ssl=1) |
N/A | After getting into just one game this season, Brown is on his way back to Hershey in the hopes of getting more playing time. |
| Andre Burakovsky | |
51.7% |
Put up pretty decent possession numbers in an(other) rough week for the team as a whole in that department, but he still managed just three shot attempts in the four games combined. At this point, are his ongoing doldrums just a product of being miscast in a fourth-line role, a sophomore slump, or maybe a little of both? |
| Jason Chimera | |
81.8% |
Chimera continued his strong start to the season with points in three of the four games this week, including a shorthanded goal (his second shortie of the year) to kick off the third period last night that likely stifled any comeback the Rangers might have staged. |
| Stanislav Galiev | |
86.8% |
Skated just over seven minutes against the Penguins, his only action on the week, but got two shots on net and was the only Capital to see more shot attempts go towards Marc-Andre Fleury than his own net, with an even-strength CF percentage of 60%. |
| Marcus Johansson | |
75.4% |
Johansson has really started to step up his game of late, especially on the power play. He had a particularly strong finish to the week, picking up the eventual game-winner against the Lightning and a three-point outing (one goal and two assists) in the comeback in New York. |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov | |
84.9% |
Fairly quiet week for Kuznetsov overall, until it wasn’t, as he was held pointless in the first three games and then got a beauty of a goal to start the comeback against the Rangers (and assisted on the extra point). He’s fallen out of the team scoring lead, but continues to keep pace with Ovechkin and Backstrom… which is pretty impressive. |
| Brooks Laich | |
 45.7% |
One of just three forwards and five Caps overall to not have a point in a week that saw the Caps score 18 goals total, but he was on for just one goal against (the Rangers’ second goal last night), which is the same number of Caps’ goals he was on the ice for, and still finished with pretty decent possession numbers, considering (47.8 ES CF%, second only to Williams). |
| Michael Latta | |
95.8% |
After sitting out for a while, Latta appeared in three of the four games this week, with his best performance – of the week and probably of the season – in the game against Ottawa, where he showed off some silky mitts on the game’s first goal and then recovered nicely from a turnover to set up the eventual game-winner. |
| T.J. Oshie | |
97.4% |
No one in the League scored more goals than Oshie’s five this week, and his eight points tied Minnesota’s Mikko Koivu for the most over that span. And while most of the goals were pretty spectacular, it’s hard to find a prettier set of assists than the two he picked up in a three-point outing against the Lightning Friday night. Now we just have to hope whatever kept him out of the final minutes of the second period last night is nothing major… |
| Alex Ovechkin | |
85.8% |
Remember those early days of the season when Ovechkin couldn’t buy a goal on the power play? Nothing but a faint memory now, as he’s piling them up at an alarming rate (for other teams). All three of his goals this week, and four of his five points overall, were scored with the extra man; two of those three goals ended up tying games the Caps had previously trailed by at least two goals. Oh, and the countdown to 500 goes to eight… |
| Justin Williams | |
94.5% |
Williams was the only Caps player to appear in all four games and finish with a cumulative CF% at even strength above 50%, so he continues to be a stud in that department even with the team’s recent possession woes. He picked up an assist against both Ottawa and Tampa, then added two goals and an assist in the outburst at MSG last night. Don’t look now, but the guys who is four years removed from his last 20+ goal season is already at 10 on the year. |
| Tom Wilson | |
88.3% |
Was hit with another reputation call on a match penalty against Ottawa that has since been rescinded, but it’s hard to find fault with the way he’s handled this whole mess, as he’s been nothing but professional throughout. An assist on Chimera’s shorthanded goal last night snapped a seven-game pointless streak, although he did finish with the lowest even-strength CF% among forwards this week (36%). |
*Rink Rank number is the percentage of total votes received by each player over the past week that were “thumbs up” – check all of them out here. Stats via war-on-ice.com and Hockey Analysis.