Justin Peters sat down on the Washington Capitals’ bench Saturday night in Toronto, baseball cap atop his head, and tried to navigate the tricky task of balancing anger with encouragement. He had allowed two goals during the first period. One deflected off a stick, then a thigh, then into the net. Another deflected off a stick and zoomed through his legs. In the locker room, Coach Barry Trotz told Peters he needed spark, so Braden Holtby would replace him after intermission.  “As soon as I was told I’m not going in, I have to go from being [ticked] off at myself to being a supporting cast for Braden, supporting cast for the team,” Peters said Tuesday. “If I’m going to sit there and pout about it, it’s not going to be a good vibe for the team, it’s not going to have any positive effect on anyone else, including myself.”  After Holtby allowed three goals during the second period and a 6-2 blowout kept chugging toward its inevitable conclusion, Peters returned and completed his shortest outing of the season. In seven games with the Capitals since signing for two years in free agency, Peters’ .872 save percentage ranks 63rd among 67 NHL goaltenders. He hasn’t allowed fewer than three goals over his past five appearances dating to Oct. 18.  But with 14 games in December ahead and only one back-to-back – Dec. 22 at home vs. Ottawa, Dec. 23 in New York against the Rangers – Peters might have several weeks to work out the kinks. Tuesday after Washington’s morning skate, while the scratched skaters worked with assistant Blaine Forsythe, Peters and goaltending coach Mitch Korn returned to basic fundamentals, slowing down the drills and working on simple things like sliding to block shots.  “For me, when you’re not in there every night, you’ve got to truly find a way to be sharp in practice,” Peters said. “I’ve been trying to treat the practices like my games. Get a good warmup before, really bearing down in practice and staying and helping, getting some extra work after.  “You’ve got to learn from what happened. The only way to take a positive from it is learning from it. There’s no point just trying to forget about it or trying to move on from it, pretending it didn’t happen. We’ve got to realize what went wrong, areas we can improve. That’s what I’m trying to do.”  Some of what went wrong, Peters said, was best forgetting. Morgan Rielly’s unassisted goal caromed off Evgeny Kuznetsov’s stick, then flicked off Nate Schmidt’s thigh and past Peters.  “That’s when it really tests you mentally to stick with the process,” Peters said. “Such an unfortunate bounce, in something like that you can only laugh really.”  The next goal, 23 seconds before the period ended, came because another stick deflected Cody Franson’s point shot on Toronto’s power play. But Peters let it slip through his five-hole. The Capitals had fallen behind 2-0, their largest first-intermission deficit since Oct. 14, coincidentally when Peters made his Washington debut because Trotz pulled Holtby less than 10 minutes after the puck dropped. Now, Trotz approached Peters in the visiting locker room and informed him Holtby would go in.  “He wanted to make a change to get the guys going, and I believe in his process and what he’s doing and I respect that,” Peters said. “Obviously I want to stay in there, I don’t want to come out of the game, but that’s his call.”  Now, with Holtby starting Tuesday against Vancouver and for the foreseeable future, Peters received some extra work with Korn. During Trotz’s years in Nashville, he had seen Korn use additional time to help Tomas Vokoun, Mike Dunham, Chris Mason and Carter Hutton become serviceable NHL netminders. He will hope for the same with Peters.  “It’s just fundamental things, it’s all those things you want,” Trotz said. “As long as you’re using the knowledge Mitch is providing, you’re going to improve.”  Sitting at his locker Tuesday, Peters thought back to Saturday, specifically those 20 minutes of limbo between when he got yanked and when he returned. He had experienced this situation before, as had Holtby, and understood the reasoning behind Trotz’s decision. After all, what more could he do besides watch, cheer and wait?  “If you sit there and you’re [mad] and cursing and swearing, feeling sorry for yourself, if you’re asked to go back in there and you’re not ready to go back in there,” Peters said. “Obviously you need to be disappointed. It’d be unhealthy if you’re not, but as soon as you can turn it into, ‘Okay, I need to help this team get going, get rah-rah, be supportive for Holts, for the guys,’ it allows you to get back in the right frame of mind to get back in there.”
Justin Peters was benched then put back in during Saturday's blowout, but December's schedule means he can get extra work with positional coach Mitch Korn.