Weekly Snapshot, Dec. 19

A weekly peek at the state of the Washington Capitals.

Record/Standings Position: 19-12-4 (42 points), 1st Southeast Division/2nd Eastern Conference/6th NHL

Last Week's Games:
* Lost, 2-1 (OT), vs. Anaheim Ducks
* Lost, 3-2, at Boston Bruins
* Won, 3-2, at Ottawa Senators

This Week's Games:
* Tuesday vs. New Jersey Devils (7:30 p.m., Versus-HD)
* Thursday vs. Pittsburgh Peguins (7 p.m., CSN-HD)
* Sunday at Carolina Hurricanes (7 p.m., CSN-Plus-HD)

Injuries: Boyd Gordon (day-to-day), Alexander Semin (day-to-day), and Jeff Schultz (out 4-6 weeks). Total Man Games Lost: 77.

Recent Transactions: Recalled Jay Beagle and Andrew Gordon from Hershey (AHL) and assigned Brian Fahey to Hershey (Dec. 15); assigned Andrew Gordon to Hershey (Dec. 13).

Top Storylines:
* The Caps finally broke their eight-game losing streak.
* Even though they had a rough start against Ottawa, they carried some great momentum from the third period against Boston, when they fired a whopping 26 shots in the third period against Boston -- despite the implementation of a more defensive-minded mentality.
* John Erksine signed a two-year contract extension earlier this week, continuing the head-scratching nature of a stay in the red, white and blue.

Top Line (Who's Hot?): Mathieu Perreault (looked great again tonight, and seems like, when healthy, he's cemented a spot in the NHL); Eric Fehr (played his best game in a while on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom); Michal Neuvirth (maintained his solid play despite the losing streak).

Scratches (Who's Not?): Ovechkin (goal-scoring still way down); Semin (here we go with another injury); Marcus Johansson (his play hasn't exactly instilled confidence that the team has found a second-line center).