Nate Schmidt has played well in Alzner's place on the top defense pair with John Carlson, which appears to have factored into why the Capitals haven't rushed Alzner back.
"Guys are playing good," Alzner said. "It's just a hard situation. These are things that you look back at when things are all done and you're like, 'Is this the right call or should we have done something different?' You just kind of go with whatever your gut tells you."
Schmidt, who was a healthy scratch for the first two games of the playoffs, said he's felt bad for Alzner having to sit out at the most important part of the season when he hadn't missed a game in nearly seven years.
"The guy played 599 games in a row," Schmidt said. "It's tough on your psyche. You're not used to not playing games. When I got sat out, I had sat within the last calendar year. This guy hadn't sat in this decade. So I feel for the guy. You want to be out there so bad and to not have the opportunity to do that, sometimes the body says no."
Trotz has not used seven defensemen in a game during his three seasons with the Capitals, but did it previously during his time as coach of the Nashville Predators. Alzner said there can be positives and negatives to having an extra defenseman in the lineup.
"The challenge that it poses is [for] the guys that like to be rolled out every other shift or whatever, sometimes your groove gets a little bit thrown off," Alzner said. "But at the same time, the guys that play lots of minutes sometimes get more out of those shifts because you don't have to go out as often. So you can maybe get up the ice a little bit more, your battles are a little better."