Holtby, who won the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender in the NHL in 2015-2016 and was a finalist again in 2016-2017, had a strong first half of the regular season, going 24-8-0 with a 2.68 goals-against average and .917 save percentage his first 32 starts to earn his third consecutive selection to the NHL All-Star Game. But his play faded after that while the Capitals struggled defensively, and he went through a rough eight-start stretch from Feb. 11- March 6, when he was 1-5-2 with a 4.82 GAA and .854 save percentage and was pulled three times.
While Holtby took some time to mentally reset and work on his game in practice, backup Philipp Grubauer started 10 of Washington's final 16 regular-season games.
"It was nice to have a little bit of a break to realize that at some point, look at that film, look at what we're doing physically, and getting back to those basics," Holtby said. "The more we looked at it, it was closer to being really good than it was too bad. It was just getting a little bit of a break sometimes helps."