Throughout the season, we’ll check in on the Washington Capitals to see which players, positions, and/or systems are hot and who is, well, not. Today we’ll be assessing the team based on their games from January 13-19.
Opponents: Ducks (W 3-0); Senators (OTW 1-0); Penguins (W 4-1)
Hot Front

Logan Thompson. It’s hard to overstate just how important Thompson has been for the Caps, not just this week but the last few weeks as the team’s offense has fallen off. But let’s focus on this week, where he picked up his first shutout of the season (and as a Cap) and then just, ho hum, added a second in his next game. His shutout streak lasted a whopping 198:22, the longest by any goalie this season and the third-longest in franchise history, before being busted by the Pens (typical) late in the third period Saturday night. His xG against this week? 4.77. Actual goals against? 1. Can’t get much better than that.
Brandon Duhaime. Let’s hear it for the gritty forward leading the team in scoring this week with two goals and an assist. He was also just about even when it comes to attempts/chances for and against at even strength despite starting just under 17% of faceoffs in the offensive zone, lowest on the team.
Pierre-Luc Dubois. Just…a phenomenal addition to the team, and he’s proving it more every single game. He makes every line better, he makes a lot of plays better, and he continued to put up the points this week with three (including his eighth goal, and first power-play goal, of the season against the Penguins).
Discipline. The Caps have been one of the more penalized teams this season, their 139 times shorthanded checking in at ninth-most overall. They were much better at staying out of the box this week, however, as they took just six penalties in the three games.
Penalty Kill. What’s better than not taking a lot of penalties? Not taking a lot of penalties and killing off the penalties they did take! The Caps were a perfect six-for-six while shorthanded, and have now given up just three power-play goals over the last three weeks (27 times shorthanded).
Cold Snap

Dylan Strome. After being a scoring machine for most of the season, Strome is in a bit of a slump, with no points this week and just one point (an assist against the Predators) in his last six games. He’s still leading the team in points, and one has to think at least some of his slump is tied, in some part, to a rough return to action for…
Alex Ovechkin. He got the overtime winner in Ottawa, which was awesome, but otherwise a kind of quiet week for the goat, with just that one goal to his resume for the three games. He also was on for a lot of chances against and had an xGF% of 38.8% at evens, worst on the team.
Power play. Penalty kill goes up…power play goes down. All part of the fun special teams seesaw we’ve been on with the Caps of late. They only scored one goal with the extra man this week on seven opportunities (although in their defense, the one goal was against the Penguins, so that kind of makes up for it).