Your weekly look at individual Washington Capitals‘ ups and downs:
| Goalies | Trend | Rink Rank* | Notes |
| Braden Holtby |  |
 95.1% |
Turned aside 56 of 59 shots he faced in his two games (including both attempts in the shootout against Detroit) to bring his League-leading win total up to 18, and his save percentage is now a robust .930. Same old, same old. |
| Philipp Grubauer |  |
62.1% |
Gave up three goals on 26 shots against the Panthers, but didn’t get a whole lot of help from the team in front of him. |
| Defensemen | |||
| Karl Alzner | |
63.7% |
Got a little bit roughed up in terms of even-strength possession on the team’s Florida swing, but was on for just one goal against (a power-play tally by the Panthers) and limited the high-danger even-strength scoring chances by opponents to just six. |
| John Carlson | |
58.3% |
Picked up a couple of assists – the only points by a Washington blueliner this week – and now has points in seven of his last ten games (nine points total). On top of that, he finished the week with the highest even-strength CF% among Caps’ defensemen, which is a welcome change after some recent struggles. |
| Taylor Chorney |  |
 23.6% |
Was on for both Detroit goals – both of which were at even strength – and generally struggled against the Red Wings, but rebounded with better performances the rest of the week. The team gave up 51 high-danger scoring chances at even strength this week, and Chorney was on for just three of those, lowest among Caps’ defensemen. |
| Matt Niskanen | |
55.4% |
After a hot scoring streak that saw him pick up eight points in 10 games, he now has exactly zero in his last four, and finished below 50% in even-strength CF% in two of the week’s three games (with a combined 38.8% over that span). He also took a couple of penalties against the Lightning, although reasonable minds could differ on whether that second one (aka the one the Bolts scored on) was a legitimate call. |
| Dmitry Orlov | |
26.2% |
On the ice for both Detroit goals and struggled in his own end in general. More troubling is that he’s not generating much at the other end of the ice, as he’s now gone pointless in his last seven games and had just one shot on goal this week. |
| Brooks Orpik |  |
N/A | Has now missed 14 straight games, which is just five short of the most he’s ever missed in an entire season… and it sounds like he’s going to be out a lot longer. |
| Nate Schmidt | |
72.8% |
On for two of the Florida goals, but was one of just two Caps’ defensemen (along with partner John Carlson) to finish the week with a positive even-strength CF%, and only Carlson was on for more scoring chances for the Caps than Schmidt. Oh, and he also got into his first career fight… because apparently Tampa’s J.T. Brown likes to punch smiling faces. |
| Forwards | |||
| Nicklas Backstrom | |
67.7% |
Appeared in his 600th career game against the Wings and, appropriately enough, picked up an assist in that game, then added a helper on the Caps’ lone goal against the Panthers to bring his point streak to seven games. That said, one of the team’s best possession players struggled in the week’s final two games, and took a couple of penalties as well. |
| Jay Beagle | |
55.0% |
Snapped an eight-game pointless streak (and an 11-game goalless streak) with his goal against the Lightning, and won just under 67% of his draws on the week. That’ll do. |
| Chris Brown | |
13.8% |
Made his season debut against the Panthers, and was one of just a handful of Caps to finish with a strong showing possession-wise (albeit in limited minutes, as he played just 7:41) before finding himself back in the stands against Tampa. |
| Andre Burakovsky | |
32.9% |
Averaged just over seven minutes of ice time in his two games and managed no shots on goal while seeing more shot attempts go towards his own net than the opponents. Some of that is usage (and those possession numbers can be pretty easily skewed when the ice time is so low) but he’s just missing… something. Hopefully he and Barry Trotz can find it. |
| Jason Chimera | |
42.9% |
No points on the week for Chimera, but he did finish the three-game run just under 50% at even strength Corsi-for (with two of the three games at or above 50%) and wasn’t on for any even-strength goals-against. He also had five shots on net against Detroit, tied for second-most on the team and second among forwards to only Ovechkin (8). |
| Stanislav Galiev | |
95.2% |
Only got into one game this week but he picked up his second assist of the year by going to the net and earned himself a little time on the power play. |
| Marcus Johansson | |
53.8% |
Assisted on both goals Tuesday night and was one of just six Caps to pick up a point at even strength this week. He did have a rough go of things at the other end of the rink, however, with the lowest even-strength CF% of anyone appearing in all three games (and second-lowest to Galiev). |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov | |
76.9% |
Like the rest of the team, Kuznetsov struggled against the Panthers, but he was able to bookend that outing with an assist (and the shootout winner) against the Wings to snap a three-game pointless streak, and a pretty slick goal against Tampa. |
| Brooks Laich | |
22.2% |
Finished the week with the team’s second-highest even-strength CF% (and one of just four players to end the three games above 50%), despite getting run around on each of the two Detroit goals Tuesday night. As for his one appearance as fourth-line center in Tampa… well, he won two faceoffs. Out of seven. So maybe back to the wing with you, Brooks. |
| Michael Latta | |
37.3% |
Like the rest of his line, Latta was on the ice for both Red Wings goals (and saw just two of the nine shot attempts for which he was on the ice go towards the right net) but had a nice bounceback against the Panthers, one of the few Caps to come out of that game with any positives. |
| T.J. Oshie | |
90.3% |
Finally picked up his first shootout goal as a Cap (seriously, it took him a whole two tries to get it) when he beat Jimmy Howard Tuesday night, but otherwise was held off the scoresheet. He did have eight shots on goal, though, and finished the week with the third-highest CF% at even strength. |
| Alex Ovechkin | |
71.2% |
Weirdly led all Caps with three minor penalties on the week (two of which occurred in the game against the Panthers). Less strange? His two goals, one of which tied the game against Detroit and one of which proved to be the only goal to get through Florida’s Al Montoya… thus saving the team from the embarrassment of getting shut out by Florida’s Al Montoya. |
| Justin Williams | |
91.7% |
Scored the first goal against the Red Wings just a minute into the game, and fired a team-high five shots on net against Tampa (aka five times as many as his captain) – but weirdly struggled in terms of even-strength possession, finishing the week with a cumulative even-strength CF% under 40%. |
| Tom Wilson | |
53.3% |
Racked up 20 penalty minutes this week (the most in the League over that span), with a boarding major and a game misconduct against the Panthers followed by a fight against the Lightning. The fight is one thing, but the misconduct (and possibly the major) in Florida is part of what is becoming a disturbing trend, one which Wilson seems to have little control over – the reputation call. For someone who has been working on staying clean (and has become a pretty decent penalty killer) this year, these calls are going to end up hurting both him and the team. Have to wonder if/when his coach or GM step in and start pleading his case to the League. |
*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.