Each Monday throughout the season, we’ll take a look at the previous week to see who is on the upswing and who stumbled, and reflect back on a highlight and lowlight from the week.
Note: If a player is listed as “trending up”, that does not mean they have been perfect; if they are “trending down”, it doesn’t mean they had the worst week ever. So don’t come for us. Please.
Here is how things went for the Washington Capitals in Week 7 of the 2023-24 season:
- Record: 2-2-0
- Goals For: 9
- Goals Against: 11
- PK: 86.7% (13-for-15)
- PP: 20% (2-for-10)
Trending Up:
- Tom Wilson. Wilson became the 12th player in franchise history to play at least 700 games as a Washington Capital, and he celebrated this milestone in style with his first career hat trick, which included two (!!) power-play goals and the eventual game-winner. He followed that performance up with the team’s only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Knights, and fired a team-high 16 shots on goal this week. We’d like to see him stay out of the penalty box a bit more, but nobody’s perfect.
- Charlie Lindgren. Lindgren only played one game this week and wasn’t even in uniform against the Golden Knights because he was under the weather, but we’re including him and his one game here because it’s the continuation of what has been a phenomenal first quarter of the season for the man with the ‘stache. Also because his one game this week? Stellar. 39 shots faced, 38 saves made, and the singular reason why the Caps walked out of Crypto.com Arena with two points against the Kings.
- Anthony Mantha. We’ve been waiting for this version of Mantha to show up for a while, and – for this week, at least – he did just that. Mantha’s three points (two goals and an assist) trailed only Wilson for the team lead in points, and he led the team – by a significant margin – in xGF% Rel with 27.01 and put nine shots on net, behind only Ovechkin and Wilson. (Note: Honorable mention here would go to Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas, because that whole line was excellent overall.)
Trending Down:
- Alex Ovechkin. His two assists against the Ducks were great – love that journey for him, and it brings him to 1499 points for his career, which is incredible. However…the captain has simply not been showing up at all this season, and this was yet another week where that was the case, including being on the ice for a ton of goals-against. Is getting him away from Evgeny Kuznetsov a good first step? 100%. But it doesn’t feel like all the blame can be placed at the feet of #92 when Ovechkin has not looked engaged in his own right.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov. Okay but #92 is a problem, and it doesn’t matter where he skates – he’s simply not doing enough at either end of the ice. He had the worst CF% Rel and FF% Rel as well as the third-worst xGF% Rel at evens this week, none of which is ideal when you’re playing in the team’s top-six. He did score a goal against the Sharks, the team’s only offense in that game, but that was his only point in the last six games – again, not ideal when you’re logging 18-20 minutes a night (although that wasn’t the case against Vegas, when Carbery cut his ice time to just over 15 minutes after a dumbass penalty).
- Sonny Milano. Milano has had a pretty decent start to the season, but this week was not his best, and it showed as Coach Carbery pulled back on his ice time and briefly benched him in the Ducks game after a turnover resulting in an Anaheim goal. He posted the second-worst xGF% Rel and SCF% Rel on the team this week, and finished the week with no points and no shots on goal. We expect more, Sunshine.
Lowlight of the Week
This was called a penalty in the moment and resulted in the eventual game-winning goal on the power play by the Sharks…
…only for the team to be informed afterward that it was not, in fact, a penalty. Which helps absolutely no one, but thanks anyway, NHL.
Highlight of the Week
All three of Wilson’s hat trick goals were lovely, but this one snapped a power-play goal drought of over a month for the team and the sigh of (temporary) relief it drew from all involved makes it our top highlight.