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 20-26.
[Editor’s Note: Friendly reminder that this is merely meant as a look at the last week in isolation, and is not a commentary on a player or system’s overall success this season – although you can certainly see trends emerge if you read these on a weekly basis.]
Opponents: Oilers (W 3-2); Kraken (W 3-0); Canucks (L 2-1)
Hot Front

The Goalies. Fresh off a shutout streak (that was sadly snapped by the worst-possible team), Logan Thompson continued to stand tall – nachos being hurled his way and everything – and was a big reason the Caps snagged two points in Edmonton. Meanwhile Charlie Lindgren showed that he wasn’t handing over the starter reins just yet and posted his own shutout against Seattle in his first game back, then gave up just two goals (and made some awesome saves) in the team’s loss to Quinn Hughes Vancouver. The Caps haven’t always needed their goalies to save them, but when they have, the netminding duo has been there.
Connor McMichael. Nice little bounceback week for McMichael, who didn’t snag any goals but did put up a couple of assists and led the team (by a wide margin) in xGF% at even strength. And if you’re a fan of the eye test, he simply looked a little more involved in the play than he had in recent weeks – in a good way.
Pierre-Luc Dubois. He’s really good, y’all. Running out of ways to say that each week but he is. Picked up a couple of goals to hit double digits and added an assist to lead the team in scoring this week (tied with Aliaksei Protas’s 1-2-3).
Penalty Kill. The Caps were, again, very disciplined this week, taking just six penalties in the three games combined. And, once again, the penalty kill stepped up, going a perfect six-for-six to run their streak to 14 straight penalties killed. That’ll do, boys.
Cold Snap

Power play. Not only did they not score a single power play goal last week, they went an entire game – their 3-0 win over Seattle – without drawing a single penalty, and only drawing five total in their other two games. Going 0-for-5 isn’t catastrophic on its own, mind you, but since we’re looking at the team in week-long snapshots…it wasn’t great.
Carlson/Sandin and Chychrun/TvR. The Caps did get a bit of offense from the blueline, with Carlson, Chychrun, and van Riemsdyk all chipping in with an assist apiece this week, but the first (?) and third (?) defensive pairs struggled somewhat in their own end, with both duos getting a bit caved in. Not all on them, of course, as the forwards take some ownership of possession stats as well, but two of the three defensive pairs being well below 50% in pretty much every stat across the board isn’t what you want.