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’re assessing the team based on their games between December 9-15...all two of them.
Opponents: Blue Jackets (2-1 OTW), Sabres (4-2 W)
Hot Front
Power play. After going to sleep for a little bit, the power play woke up against the Sabres, with two of the three goals scored with the extra man (both by Tom Wilson, his second two-goal outing in the last three games overall).
John Carlson. In a relatively low-scoring week (and one with just two games, to boot), Carlson trailed only Jakob Chychrun – more on big #6 in a sec – for the team lead in scoring with three assists. He also led the team in even-strength CF%, SCF%, and xGF%. Another pretty decent week for Carlson who has been, somewhat quietly, very good this season.
Jakob Chychrun. A little less quiet but just as good, Chychrun continues his excellent 2024-25 campaign with a four-point week and was usually right behind Carlson when it came to those offensive underlying stats. Just…no more taking out teammates with your shot, yeah?
The goalies. At the start of the season, the Caps’ goaltending tandem was good-not-great – which was fine, because the team certainly didn’t need them to be perfect or anywhere close. As the offense has trailed off a bit, however, both Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson have stepped up and put together not just wins but often wins in which they were one of the best players on the ice. Thompson turned aside 19 of the 21 shots he faced in his one outing this week, while Lindgren stopped 32 of 33 against the Jackets.
Cold Snap
Matt Roy / Rasmus Sandin. As always, a reminder that these weekly check-ins are just that – a weekly snapshot, and therefore a small sample size (smaller than usual this time around). This defensive duo has been very, very solid all season long but this week wasn’t their best, with Sandin in particular getting far more offensive-zone faceoffs and Roy in particular struggling defensively. Roy had the lowest even-strength stats across the board this week – xGF, CF, FF, SCF, etc. – with none of his percentages above 36% (and most of them well below 30%).
The schedule. Seriously, this 17-day break followed by 12 games in three days (perhaps a smidge of exaggeration there but you get it) is…ridiculous. Thankfully it seems like once the Caps get through December and its four sets of back-to-back games, they’ll have a much more “normal” and consistent schedule the rest of the way.