Washington Capitals Head Coach Adam Oates looks to be throwing a monkey wrench into the Caps goaltending situation as he will start 22 years old German goaltender Philipp Grubauer for the 5th straight game tonight, putting Brayden Holtby back on the bench again even though he is not hurt, and likely sending Michal Neuvirth to his 9th straight healthy scratch. This even after Grubauer lost his last 2 games against Buffalo and Ottawa. In his defense he played extremely well in both games allowing only 3 goals total. Now Oates is playing with Holtby's confidence here, and he should be a little careful, because Grubauer is still mostly an unknow quantity with only 10 NHL games played so far.  Holtby was the nominal starter at the beginning of the season and he played well in October and November.  In November he went 8-3-1 with a nice .933 savepercentage.  But the wheels suddenly went off the track for Holtby in December as he won only one game in the month and played in only 5 games.  His save percentage dropped to .863 in the month.  On November 30 backup goalie Neuvirth stepped on the puck at pratice and went down with an injury.  Oates called up Grubauer from Hershey of the AHL where he had been playing well.  But I'm sure he didn't expect Grubauer to make such an immediate impact going 5-2-2 with a 2.02 goals against and a .938 save percentage.  Now Holtby's overall numbers this season are decent with a 13-10-2 record 3.00 goals against and a .915 save percentage.  But he has been bad lately.  If Grubauer plays well again tonight Oates will most likely give him another straight start.  There is some grumbling among the Caps fans that new Head Goaltender Coach Olaf Kolzig is changing Holtby's style too much, preaching him patience instead of using an aggressive style. There are a lot of goaltender ghosts around Washington's recent inability to get past the second round in the playoffs. Goaltenders have been brought in like Cristobal Huet, Jose Theodore, Semyon Varlamov Michal Neuvirth and Tomas Vokoun and have gone away without playoff success.  You could make a point that the reason that the Caps lost to the Rangers in the last 3 straight playoff series was because New York had Henrik Lundqvist and Washington didn't.  He only shut them out twice in a row in games 6 and 7 last season. Now this could play out several ways. And actually Oates line is that the goaltending situation will play itself out over time.  Poolies want to know how much time? On the one hand Oates says the team likes the kid's energy and confidence, but on the other he says Holt is still the guy. Neuvirth is already grumbling about a trade.  Holtby is struggling and Grubauer is hot.  If Neurvirth gets traded and Holtby could play his way back to starter than Grubauer could be the backup.  But with 9 straight healthy scratches his trade value is low.  More likely Grubauer will cool off, Neurvirth will become backup again, and gets some playing time to increase his value.  In that scenario Grubauer goes back to the AHL awaiting his next opportunity.  But if he keeps playing this way, and Holtby continues to struggle.  Who knows?  Just keep an eye on this situation. The kid could be worth a short term pick up right now.