The Washington Capitals won both their games this weekend, beating the Nashville Predators at home 5-2 on Saturday and the New York Rangers in New York 4-1 on Sunday. This weekend featured goals from Alex Ovechkin, Troy Brouwer, Karl Alzner, Nate Schmidt, Eric Fehr, Jason Chimera, Mikhail Grabovski, and Steve Oleksy. Schmidt scored the first two goals of his NHL career, while Alzner and Oleksy each scored the first goal of their respective seasons. Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer both played extremely well in goal. Holtby saved 34 of 36 shots on Saturday night and Grubauer saved 30 of 31 on Sunday, including a perfect 8 for 8 during power plays. Grubauer is just the second German goaltender to record a win in the NHL, the other one being Thomas Greiss
Martin Erat and Dmitry Orlov deserve a ton of credit for putting aside the drama and stepping up their play when the Capitals needed them to. Oleksy also deserves credit for scoring a goal and getting an assist on Sunday after being scratched the past few games.
After this weekend, the Capitals are in 7th place in the Eastern Conference and 3 points ahead of the 8th seed (Carolina Hurricanes). They are one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs in 6th place. They are currently 7 points behind the Penguins for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
