Wolski, Perreault and a Look Into Adam Oates's Thought Process

After going eleven games without a goal and ten without a point in a stretch that spanned nearly all of February, Wojtek Wolski was healthy-scratched for the Capitals' first game of March, an afternoon tilt in Winnipeg. When Troy Brouwer was too sick to play against Boston three nights later, Wolski drew back into the lineup and, as fate would have it, scored the game-tying goal late in the third period. Said Adam Oates post-game, "I'm obviously happy for him, but I thought he played a better hockey game. He did the things that we ask. The goal - that's obviously big for us and big for him. But we don't talk production. We talk play."

And so Wolski was back in the lineup again two nights later and notched a goal and a pair of assists in the Caps' romp over the Panthers, and his season seemed back on track... if it had ever really been off-track. As we noted between the Winnipeg scratch and the Boston game, "Wolski has had unfavorable zone starts, a solidly positive Corsi, the highest SFON/60 of any Caps forward... and unsustainably lousy puck luck. Keep playing this guy - the points will come." Sure enough, they did.

Then a funny thing happened after the team laid a collective egg on Long Island last Saturday - Wolski found himself back in the press box on Sunday, and he found another perhaps unlikely teammate up there alongside him in Mathieu Perreault. Oates was asked about these lineup decisions after that afternoon's loss to the Rangers, and the head coach responded, "Play. Play and the team we're playing. A lot of factors are involved."

Oates owes the questioner and the public no more than that, but one wonders what he saw in the play of the two that earned them the afternoon off. After all, the two forwards are among the team's top three in Corsi (a proxy for puck possession); Perreault leads all Caps forwards in assists- and points-per-sixty-minutes at five-on-five; Wolski leads the team in shots-for-per-sixty at fives (and is tops in shots-against among guys who have been here all year). And while Perreault has had great puck luck and Wolski hasn't, one-game-focused arguments based on either regression would seem rather silly. Perreault has taken too many penalties lately... but also has drawn a bunch. Heck, Perreault has even turned himself into a 54%-effective face-off man so far this season, 60% in the offensive zone. So if the scratches were about "play," it's hard to see how, unless there were specifics in that Islanders debacle that stood out to the coaching staff.

More: Capitals Ups and Downs: Week 8 Player Usage Chart: Caps Forwards Mathieu Perreault Shows That Crashing The Net Isn't Just For Big Guys

How about "the team we're playing"? The last time the Caps faced the Rangers, Perreault had the Caps' second-worst Corsi among forwards, and Wolski was almost as bad. Then again, the team was outshot 29-19 at even-strength. Perhaps something about the specific individual match-ups made Oates wary of throwing the two to the New York wolves again, but nine times out of ten a 17-plus-game sample is going to tell you more than one game can (and you'd certainly hope that Perreault's one point in seven career games against New York was treated as largely irrelevant).

In short, these are two guys who have helped the offense all year - with their play, if not always their production - watching in street clothes while Joey Crabb and Aaron Volpatti dressed, Matt Hendricks skated on the top line... and the Caps dropped a somewhat uninspired 4-1 decision. Whatever it is that Crabb and Volpatti bring to the lineup that Perreault and Wolski don't - some form of physicality that may or may not actually help a team win - it didn't seem to impact the final result (though, to be sure, the Caps had bigger problems on this day).

It's easy to second-guess a coach's decision in a loss. And, truth be told, decisions like the ones we're discussing here may seem a bit like picking out pillows for the deck chairs on the Titanic. But benching guys who are seeing 53% or so of all shots when they're on the ice heading towards the opposing net in favor of guys who are around 44% seems an odd play from afar. Adam Oates talks "play, not production" and takes into account "a lot of factors" when deciding upon his lineup; it'd be nice to know more about those factors, because puck possession, as commonly understood by statistically-inclined onlookers, doesn't appear to weigh too heavily among them.

George McPhee's Far-Reaching $1.2 Million

[Ed. Note: We're very excited to introduce the newest members of the Japers' Rink crew, Kevin Klein and Geoff Thompson from Sick, Unbelievable. Here's Kevin's first post... enjoy!]

I envy not the man who is called General Manager.

Every decision scrutinized and called into question by an arsenal of most accomplished couch GMs. Every personnel move - trades, signings, promotions or demotions - weighed for years in the eyes of the public, anything less than a championship inevitably bottle-necking to a single conclusion: failure.

A GM's body of work, on a micro level, is comprised of single transactions, which then make up the fabric of the teams he champions, like tesserae in a completed mosaic.

George McPhee, the artist of said mosaic, was faced with a notable decision to make this past offseason: re-sign Alexander Semin, or allow the high-scoring, seven-year Capital to plunge into the depths of free agency. McPhee opted for the latter, and we can only speculate as to what it would have taken to keep Semin here, as he ultimately inked a one-year deal with Carolina at a pricetag that gobbled up roughly 10% of their total cap space.

The nature of large groups of people (the fanbase of a professional hockey team, for instance) is that the majority identifies surface issues while allowing emotion or nostalgia to cloud judgment, without seeing further pertinent information that lay beyond view. To present an image, like deciding to eat the cake that's been in Tupperware in the fridge for a week without first lifting up the lid to see if it's gone moldy.

In this particular instance, under the Tupperware lid was Semin's massive salary and a gaping hole at second line center that the money in question could (and did) go towards filling.

Many came to grips with Semin's departure quickly - you didn't have to lift that lid up too far to establish that he probably wouldn't be in Washington this year - but McPhee's relatively minimal efforts to replace the talented winger stirred the pot of discontent. Eric Fehr and Wojtek Wolski - with careers pocked by injury, inconsistency, and an inability to meet expectations - could hardly fill the void created by the departure of a 40-goal scorer. Or could they?

Okay, no. But that doesn't mean they couldn't far exceed expectations. McPhee signed both wingers to one year, $600,000 contracts, making Fehr and Wolski the poster boys for what seemed to be the GMGM's offseason mantra: low risk, high reward.

It's worked. Fehr and Wolski have far outperformed their paygrade. Besides Fehr and Wolski, there are 44 players listed on CapGeek's NHL payrolls with salaries at $600,000 or less. 18 of these players have played in less than 5 games this season, and thus have not been included in the below table, which shows the total point production and Relative Corsi rating of each player.

It's worked. Fehr and Wolski have outperformed their paygrade.

That there are only 27 players in the league- less than one per team- that have played more than 5 games while making 600k or less is testament enough to the brand of hockey expected from them. This is plenty evident in the data forthcoming.

Relative Corsi is a quantification of how many shots are fired for as compared to shots fired against when a certain player is on the ice, as compared to when he is not on the ice. It's a good way to gauge a player's performance while sidestepping much of the luck and randomness prevalent in scoring. [All data was captured at end of games on Thursday, March 7, 2013. Subtle variance from this date is to be expected.]

Player	Total Points	Average Time on Ice/Game	Relative Corsi
John Scott (BUF)	0	3:57	-3.5
Kevin Porter (BUF)	0	15:22	-26.0
Eric Boulton (NYI)	0	4:58	-21.3
Pierre-Cedric Labrie (TBL)	0	6:42	-23.1
Brandon Bollig (CHI)	0	5:43	10.0
Patrick Bordeleau (COL)	1	5:14	2.2
Ryan Reaves (STL)	1	7:09	3.3
Aaron Volpatti (VAN/WSH)	1	7:00	-8.4
Dave Dziurzynski (OTT)	2	12:26	-3.7
Dustin Jeffrey (PIT)	2	10:54	9.7
Joe Vitale (PIT)	2	9:41	-21.6
Steve Begin (CGY)	2	7:36	0.7
Bobby Butler (NSH)	2	10:15	-1.9
Drayson Bowman (CAR)	3	11:48	-7.0
Mark Olver (COL)	3	9:25	-5.2
Cory Emmerton (DET)	3	10:31	-20.5
Rich Clune (NSH)	3	8:05	-0.2
Zac Rinaldo (PHI)	4	7:57	-13.7
Aaron Palushaj (COL)	4	12:19	-6.5
Jordan Nolan (LAK)	4	8:15	18.1
Ryan Garbutt (DAL)	5	9:22	-3.2
Stephen Gionta (NJ)	7	13:36	-15.9
Tom Pyatt (TB)	10	16:52	-13.9
Andrew Shaw (CHI)	10	15:10	3.7
Bryan Bickell (CHI)	12	12:21	0.6

The cumulative statistics yield the following averages:

	Points	Average Time on Ice/Game	Relative Corsi
League Average	3.24	9:41	-5.9

Let's see how Fehr and Wolski compare.

Capitals Player	Total Points	Average Time on Ice/Game	Relative Corsi
Eric Fehr	12	12:04	18.9
Wojtek Wolski	8	14:57	6.5

Eric Fehr has been particularly effective, putting up points at nearly four times the rate of other players at his paygrade. His Relative Corsi rating is almost exactly proportional, showing what Caps fans already know: he's playing well even when the puck isn't going in.

Though Wolski's numbers are not as impressive- and he's had a few highly visible blunders that have contributed to a (probably undeserved) notion that he's played poorly- these numbers show that he is exceeding expectations. That is, if salary can be considered a dictator of expectation...and when you're only making 600k, what other indicator could there really be?

More: Wolski, Perreault and a Look Into Adam Oates's Thought Process Capital Ups and Downs: Week 8

But it's possible that Fehr and Wolski are actually even higher above their class than these numbers indicate. The Chicago Blackhawks have started the season hotter than any other team in NHL history. 10, 11, even 12 games with points would have been one thing- but at 24 games in a row with a point, they are an absolute outlier...like Lebron James in high school degree of outlier, and their $600k and below skaters have not escaped the effects. They are listed below.

Brandon Bollig	0	10.0
Andrew Shaw	10	3.7
Bryan Bickell	12	0.6

As seen here, each player is dramatically above the average in either points or Relative Corsi. When their numbers are plucked from the equation, the league average looks more like this:

	Points	Relative Corsi
League Average minus Blackhawks	2.36	-6.7

Here again are Fehr and Wolski's numbers, for easy comparison:

	Points	Relative Corsi
Eric Fehr	12	18.9
Wojtek Wolski	8	6.5

George McPhee has essentially turned the yearly money that Alex Semin would have commanded into three contracts, all set to expire this year: Wolski and Fehr ($1.2 million combined), and Mike Ribeiro ($5 million). One of these players is playing well, and certainly exceeding expectations. Another of these players is playing very well, tied for most points at his paygrade and handedly outplaying the individual he is tied with as measured by Corsi. The third is presently among the league's elite in point accumulation. Not a bad haul, huh?

Granted, Fehr and Wolski both play above average minutes compared to their modestly moneyed fellows. As reasonably skilled offensively-minded forwards their strengths lay in different places than a Zac Rinaldo, or a Joe Vitale, but their ice time isn't so inflated that it discredits their superior play. In fact, as tweeted by Mike Vogel last week, Eric Fehr is doing more with his ice time than any other player of comparable production in the league.

If Fehr and Wolski continue driving play, it's unlikely McPhee lets them drift back out to free agency. That's the beauty of an inexpensive and short-term contract. Even with unexpected production from the player, the cost of the contract currently being played under sets a precedent for the next one, due to the short turnaround.

Point is, if McPhee believes that Fehr and Wolski's success is sustainable, he can likely get them back for very cheap (and with a number of concerns needing address- most notably a certain shutdown defenseman and a certain top 10 point getter in the league- a saved penny is a very good thing). Such are the fruits of two seeds planted by McPhee last offseason, in very ninja-like manner.

Monday Caps Clips: Weekend is Weak End to First Half

Your savory breakfast links:

• Get caught up on all of the Clips you missed while you were out enjoying the weather this weekend right here.
• Recaps and other assorted musings on yesterday's loss from us (with quotes, and look for Clyde's Shots later on), Monumental video (Oates, players), Vogs, NHL.com, WaPo (gamer, blog), Wash Times (gamer, blog), CSNW (gamer, blog, Joe B.), Frankovic, Peerless, Sick Unbelievable, DSP, OFB and RMNB.
  • Silver lining, Part I: Marcus Johansson's return to the lineup and play. [WashTimes, CSNW]
  • Silver lining, Part II: Steven Oleksy is "living the dream" (while the rest of us would probably use another word to describe the season so far). [RMNB, Capitals Outsider]
  • Angry Braden Holtby was angry. [RMNB]
  • Pre-game, Alex Ovechkin talked about needing to get a bit more R-E-S-P-E-C-T from the guys wearing the stripes. How'd that work out for you, Ovi? [Monumental (video), WaPo, WashTimes, CSNW, and for more pre-game chatter, check out Monumental video (Oates, Hendricks)]
• Reflections on a lost weekend... [WaPo, Sick Unbelievable]
• ... an up-and-down week... [Peerless]
• ... and a largely lost half-season. [RMNB]
• If you're looking ahead to the draft, here's some of what you might be looking ahead to in the years that follow it. [dcsportsdork]
• It wasn't such a hot weekend down (up) in Hershey, either. [Patriot-News, SHoE, Inside Hockey]
• Finally, happy 46th birthday to Bill Houlder.

Today's Lines: Johansson, Volpatti In; Perreault, Erskine, Wolski Out

Per Mike Vogel, it looks as if Marcus Johansson will make his return to the lineup today, as will Aaron Volpatti and Tom Poti, with Mathieu Perreault, John Erskine and Wojtek Wolski apparently set to miss this afternoon's game. So expect the lines and defensive pairings in front of Braden Holtby to look like this:

Matt Hendricks -- Mike Ribeiro - Alex Ovechkin

Eric Fehr - Nicklas Backstrom - Troy Brouwer

Jason Chimera - Marcus Johansson - Joel Ward

Aaron Volpatti - Jay Beagle - Joey Crabb

Karl Alzner - Tomas Kundratek

Tom Poti - John Carlson

Jeff Schultz - Steve Oleksy

That leaves Erskine, Mike Green, Brooks Laich and Jack Hillen out with injuries, and Perreault and Wolski unsolved mysteries at present. Of further note, Michal Neuvirth is back to backing-up after being too ill to do so yesterday.

(Note: this post initially listed Erskine as in.)

Capitals vs. Rangers Recap: Caps Can't Build on Strong Start, Fall to Rangers, 4-1

[GameCenter - Ice Tracker - Game Summary - Event Summary - Shot Summary - Faceoff Summary - Play-by-Play - Home TOI - Visitor TOI - Fenwick Timeline]

In a shortened season, every event takes on more importance, relatively, than it would be during a normal campaign. Every streak, every injury, every win or loss, every period, every face-off... all of it amplified, especially for a team that dug itself a grave-sized hole over the first quarter or so of the season, as the Washington Capitals did.

And so Saturday's loss on Long Island felt like another nail in the Caps' coffin, a dramatic downturn in their chances of making the post-season, from nearly a coin-flip to once again long odds. Of course, it felt that way because that's the reality of the situation in which these Caps now find themselves. But there will be losses along the way even if the Caps do make an improbable run to the playoffs, it's just critically important that these individual losses don't become losing streaks, and that each one is answered with at least a couple of wins.

To that end, the Caps had played three consecutive three game spans in which they'd won two-of-three entering Thursday night's game against Florida, which they won handily and followed up with that ugly loss yesterday, making Sunday's game against the Rangers the "rubber match" of the current three-game stretch. Win (especially against the 8th-place Rangers) and things are still relatively on-track; lose and the already miniscule margin for error becomes even smaller.

On Sunday afternoon, the Caps made the hard road ahead even harder, dropping a 4-1 decision to New York.

Ten more notes on the game:

• Just over two minutes into the game Marcus Johansson (playing in his first game since February 7) won a battle along the boards to keep possession in the Rangers' zone, and Jason Chimera fed Steve Oleksy for a shot from the point that would elude Martin Biron in the New York net (thanks, in part, to Joel Ward's presence in front). It was Oleksy's first NHL goal, Johansson's first assist of the season and Chimera's second point in the last month. That trifecta had to pay handsomely.
  
• Nearly ten minutes later, Alex Ovechkin looked to be lining up Derek Stepan for a neutral zone hit reminiscent of his famous hit on Jaromir Jagr at the 2010 Olympics. Stepan moved the puck and Ovechkin was left with two decent options - hit Stepan and risk an interference penalty (or, quite possibly, something worse) or peel off and hustle to get back into the play defensively. Instead, he chose Option #3 - peel off in the opposite direction of the puck and the play and not hustle to get back defensively. Stepan got the puck back, drove wide, and ended up banking the puck off Braden Holtby and in from below the goal line. It was a terrible goal for Holtby to allow, and even if Ovechkin's play in the neutral zone was far from the proximate cause of the goal, it was another another questionable neutral zone play by the Caps "lead-by-example" captain, something that's become a bit of a theme lately.
• Midway through the second period, and soon after successfully killing a penalty, the Rangers drew two penalties on the same play, both on Ovechkin... and in differing degrees of legitimacy, to put it politely. But on the delayed penalty before the first of the two could be called, Brian Boyle scored his first goal of the year on what was essentially a fade away shot from above the face-off circle. That's another one that Holtby probably should have had.
• On the ensuing power-play - for the Ovechkin penalty that will go on his record - Rick Nash beat Holtby and chased him from the game (and for the second time in his last five outings). If the Caps were going to make a comeback in this one, it would be Michal Neuvirth backstopping them to it.
  
• Late in the second period, Matt Hendricks drew a penalty to put the Caps on their second power play of the afternoon, and Ward drew another to put the Caps up two men for 31 seconds. And while the Caps had a couple of terrific chances on that 5-on-3, they couldn't beat Biron and the stanza ended with the Caps trailing by two to a team that was 65-0-3 when leading after two periods over the last three seasons.
  
• With New York predictably going into a shell for the last twenty minutes, chances both ways were minimal and the result, unsurprisingly, was no scoring... until Brad Richards potted one with 1:12 left with the Caps hoping to pull their goalie for a sixth attacker. Ballgame.
  
• Back to Neuvirth, one of the silver linings to come from this one was that he got some game action and looked good, stopping ten of the 11 shots he faced. With the most-compressed part of the schedule still ahead, the Caps will need at least two goalies playing and playing well if they're to have any chance at a playoff spot... and even if they're not heading to the playoffs, they'll likely want some time to see what pending-free-agent Neuvirth's got the rest of the way.
  
• Nicklas Backstrom won all 14 of the faceoffs he took today, which is... something.
  
• The Caps certainly missed Mathieu Perreault's creativity and his and Wojtek Wolski's puck possession. And John Erskine's snarl. And Mike Green 's offense, especially on the power play. And Brooks Laich, and Dmitry Orlov...
  
• One of these days, Joey Crabb may show why he gets a sweater every night, but that day hasn't come yet and didn't come today.

The Caps' inability to pick up even a point this weekend against the Empire State's two teams hurts (and hopefully you made better use of these two beautiful days than they did). And with a home-and-home series against the Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes looming, the Caps' playoff hopes could be all but extinguished by the end of the week. But until they are, wins will continue to provide hope and losses will continue to provide pain... and more than it would in a normal year.

Game highlights:

Capitals-Rangers Post-Game Quotes

Via the team:

Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the struggles of the Capitals penalty kill...

"I think some of it is we're tired. Some of our guys are tired and you make bad reads. You get a little caught out of position, you can't clear it, you don't win faceoffs; you need another save every once in a while. It's a little bit of everything."

Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates on the Capitals' first half of the season...

"Average. I think we can do a lot better. I think we've seen signs of what we can be if we do it right. And obviously we've got to figure out ways to improve."

Washington Capitals defenseman Steven Oleksy on the significance of not making mistakes...

"Especially in a short season like this, every two points is huge. You can kind of consider them four-point games. We're playing playoff hockey right now. We have to bear down and find a way to get those two points."

Washington Capitals defenseman Steven Oleksy on the excitement of his first goal...

"I don't score a lot of goals, so every one is nice. To get that one out of the way helps a lot, but at the end of the day we were looking for two points and we were unable to get that."

Washington Capitals forward Eric Fehr on evaluating the season at the half-way mark...

"Well, obviously, a terrible start, and we've been getting better ever since. This weekend is a bit of a step back but I think you can still see our game where we're playing a lot better third periods. We didn't play a sixty-minute effort this weekend, but we had spurts where we were real good."

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin on the performance of the Washington Capitals this past weekend...

"Tough losses, but we'll refresh our minds, forget these losses, look at the video before the game, and get ready for Carolina."

New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella on the play of Brian Boyle...

"He [Brian Boyle] played better today. Obviously scores a big goal for us. Brought some pucks to the net, which I think is a big part of his game. He played better today."

New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella on the play of Martin Biron...

"He [Martin Biron] was big on the 5-on-3. Especially there, key part of the game, made some big saves. He really does settle a team down. He helps us get out of our end zone because he moves the puck so well. So, we get him in a game, he wins us the game, plus it gives Hank [Henrik Lundqvist] a day off, plus a full day off tomorrow. Really happy how it played out here."

New York Rangers center Brain Boyle on the play of himself today...

"I tried to start a new season basically. I tried to put myself in positions to do the things that I can do well. I tried to keep it simple."

New York Rangers center Brian Boyle on his play moving forward...

"I've got to be consistent now. We've got a good team here. We've got a lot of guys that can play and we've got some depth. But I want to be part of it and I think, if I am going the way I should, we are a better team. That's my focus and that's what I am going to do."

New York Rangers goalie Martin Biron on getting the start today...

"I think after those first 5 minutes or so, we really got going, which gave me a chance to settle in."

New York Rangers goalie Martin Biron on the play of Brian Boyle today...

"He's a good guy. He really works hard. Obviously he puts a lot of pressure on himself to try to contribute to every aspect of the game, It could be defensively, face-off, killing penalties and scoring goals is a big part of it. We see what he can do with putting the puck in the net."

Capital Ups and Downs: Week 8

Your weekly look at individual Washington Capitals' ups and downs:

Goalies	Trend	Notes
Philipp Grubauer		With Neuvirth ailing again, Grubauer was back in DC for a second go-round, enjoying the view of Thursday's lopsided win from the bench before making his first NHL start against the Islanders over the weekend. Unfortunately for him, that appearance coincided with a third-period meltdown by the team in front of him and his forty (!) saves on forty-five shots weren't enough to earn his first win before heading back to the Bears. Solid work once again, though.
Michal Neuvirth		Neuvirth returned to action on Sunday against the Rangers, coming in to relieve Braden Holtby after the Caps fell behind 3-1 in the second period. Nothing like being shoved into action mid-game, particularly after being on the sidelines for over a month (and being sick for most of the last two weeks) - but if it had any effect on Neuvirth, he certainly didn't show it as he turned aside ten of the eleven shots he faced and didn't look bad doing so.
Braden Holtby		He's had some great games of late, but this week was a bit of a rollercoaster for Holtby. After giving up three goals early to the Bruins (including at least one that you'd usually expect him to stop) he shut the door and allowed his team to claw back in to - and eventually win - the game. A few key saves early in the first and second periods set the stage for the Caps' lopsided win over the Panthers. But he wasn't great against New York yesterday, and the Rangers' first goal in particular was one that just can't go in. If anyone can rebound it's Holtby, and we expect him to do just that... but not the best of weeks for him.
Defensemen
Karl Alzner		Was on for five goals-for (including two in each of the wins) but was also on for four goals-against (two in each of the losses), three of which were at even-strength. He did manage to pick up his first assist of the year against the Islanders, however, so there's that.
John Carlson		Picked up his fourth goal of the season (and added an assist) in Thursday's rout of the Panthers, then threw in another assist in the Islanders game - while skating close to thirty minutes on an injury-shortened blue line. He's already about a third of the way to his assist and point-totals for each of the last two seasons and almost halfway to his career-best of nine goals... but he's got to work on the other side of his game, as he was nicked for at least a goal-against in three of the four games this week, including three of the Islanders' five.
John Erskine		Dropped the gloves with big Shawn Thornton on Tuesday after the Bruins took a 2-0 lead, conceivably to kickstart his team (although that attempt to shift momentum was only effective if it was time-release, because the Bruins made it a 3-0 lead shortly after). He then proceeded to do what he's been doing best, oddly enough - he scored a goal, opening the floodgates against the Panthers with a shot almost from center ice. Unfortunately he made it just two shifts into the Islanders game before leaving with an upper body injury, and is day-to-day.
Mike Green		Has been skating intermittently since reaggravating his groin injury but doesn't appear to be on any sort of schedule for return... which is less than great.
Jack Hillen		...who?
Tomas Kundratek		Was burned for a combined three goals-against by the New York teams this weekend... but anyone who scores his first NHL goal - and adds an assist on the overtime game-winner - gets an up arrow from us. Congratulations, Tomas!
Steven Oleksy		Speaking of congratulations, many many congrats to the newest Cap, who had himself quite a debut week. In the last seven days he got signed to a three-year deal by the Caps, made his NHL debut against the Bruins, picked up his first NHL point and scored his first NHL goal. The twenty-seven-year-old rookie finished the week with four points, eleven hits, twelve blocked shots and a plus-three rating. Yeah... that'll do.
Dmitry Orlov		After sitting out with an injury since early December, Orlov made his return to action on Saturday with the Bears and picked up an assist in his second game back. With Green still out and Erskine ailing, could Orlov be on his way back to the NHL sooner than later?
Tom Poti		His five-game streak without being on for a goal-against ended with Dougie Hamilton's power play marker on Tuesday, but he did balance it out by being on for a couple of goals-for... before taking a seat for the next two games. Erskine's injury got him back into the lineup on Sunday, where he finished even for the day and saw his ice time diminish as the game went on. Have to think that a healthy Orlov knocks him out of the lineup. Or a healthy Green. Dare to dream.
Jeff Schultz		Sat out the Bruins game, got back into the lineup against Florida and somehow managed to be on for as many goals-against - one - as goals-for in a 7-1 win. The following game was even more eventful, as his high-sticking double minor was the opening for Tavares and friends to turn a one-goal game into a two-goal game.
Forwards
Nicklas Backstrom		Picked up three assists in the comeback victory over the Bruins, including a heads-up pass to Eric Fehr to set up the winner in overtime, then added an assist against Florida and a goal against the Islanders to round out a five-point week. Sunday was his only pointless game of the week, but he balanced that out by winning all fourteen of the faceoffs he took against the Rangers. As strange as it sounds, moving Eric Fehr up to his wing seems to have given him a bit of a spark.
Jay Beagle		In a week where twenty-seven goals were scored - either for or against the Caps - Jay Beagle was on the ice for a grand total of one, the Bruins' power play goal on Tuesday. Obviously that translates to no points for Jay, but that's about the only negative thing to report (as usual) for the big dog, whose work ethic can't be argued with.
Troy Brouwer		Whatever disease is running through the Caps' lineup also ran through Brouwer on Tuesday, keeping him out of action against the Bruins. He was back in time for the scoring party on Thursday, however, picking up two assists and adding a third for the week against the Islanders. No goals this week, though, and with both Ribeiro and Ovechkin scoring, his goal-scoring lead is now a goal-scoring tie... you gonna take that lying down, Troy? Reclaim your crown!
Jason Chimera		It's almost amazing how snakebitten Chimera has been this year, as time and time again he finds himself in a position to score and just can't finish. This isn't just regression - this is falling off a cliff, and the frustration is starting to show. He did pick up an assist against the Rangers, though, so... yay?
Joey Crabb		It's not that he's necessarily been a liability for the Caps so far - hard to be when you're getting under ten minutes a night (or under five, as was the case on Tuesday). He just doesn't seem to have much of a purpose right now while others serve time in the press box.
Eric Fehr		If Eric Fehr has scored a prettier goal than the one that finished off the Bruins this week, I don't remember it - a diving, top-shelf shot fired while splitting two defensemen that not only topped off a three-point night but also completed the Caps' comeback. Another goal against the Panthers gave him six on the season, three times as many goals as he had in fourteen more games last year. What a difference two healthy shoulders (and some good ice time) can make - Fehr might be rounding into what the Caps thought he would be when they drafted him a decade ago.
Matt Hendricks		Picked up an assist on Thursday and did some good work (relatively speaking) filling in on the top line... but with the team trailing by two he lost his spot alongside Ovechkin and Ribeiro mid-game against the Rangers. Temporary or permanent? We'll see.
Marcus Johansson		After missing the last twelve games with a concussion, Johansson made his return to the lineup on Sunday and all things considered didn't look too bad, even earning a spot on the top line late in the game. The assist he got against the Rangers wasn't just his first point since February 5 - it was also his first assist of the season. Here's hoping it's the first of many...
Brooks Laich		No Laich, no like.
Alex Ovechkin		An assist against the Bruins and a three-point night against Florida brought him tantalizingly close to 700 for his career... but sadly that's where the good news ends. On Tuesday it was his hook that led to Marchand's penalty shot, his penalty in the first that led to the Bruins' power play goal and his late-game penalty with the score tied that led to the rest of us losing years off our life. Some questionable neutral-zone play on Sunday created a 3-on-2 that led to a Ranger goal, and for the cherry on the sundae, later in the game he took two penalties on just one play - which the Rangers proceeded to eat up, scoring on the delayed call and then the ensuing power play. Undisciplined play is a killer, and Ovechkin had an extremely (and somewhat uncharacteristically) undisciplined week.
Mathieu Perreault		Scored two goals (including a highlight reel, albeit meaningless, one against the Panthers) and didn't take a single penalty. So it was totally unsurprising that he would be the healthy scratch with the return of Marcus Johansson... right?
Mike Ribeiro		Kicked off the comeback against the Bruins with a goal, then added a goal and two assists in the 7-1 party Thursday night to bring his season total up to nine goals and twenty-eight points - good enough for 10th in the League. As good as that was, though, we can't give him an up arrow as long as he insists on yapping to the refs about every call. In a season of so much good for Ribeiro, that's been the one blemish and it cost the Caps in New York.
Joel Ward		Just a single assist for Ward this week, but he wasn't on for a single even strength goal-against and continues to be solid at both ends of the ice. He might not be producing as much offensively as he did at the beginning of the year, but he's making it hard on the other team's defense pretty much every shift and that's nothing to sneeze at.
Aaron Volpatti		Skated less than four minutes against the Bruins, was scratched for the next two games, and returned to the lineup Sunday for a whopping 6:23 of ice time against the Rangers. The Caps may be short on top-six forwards but you'd have to think they could use Perreault and Wolski over Crabb and Volpatti any day.
Wojtek Wolski		Last week we wrote the following: "Keep playing this guy - the points will come". Proving that we're psychic, they did indeed come - and picked a great time to arrive, too, as Wolski got the game-tying goal against the Bruins on Tuesday, then got the eventual game-winner against the Panthers two nights later. It really was only a matter of time before he broke through... so it would've been nice if he could have tried to keep the good times rolling on Sunday instead of serving another stint in the press box. But hey, last time he sat out he came back with goals in two straight games, so...