On Wednesday night the Capitals took on the Toronto Maple Leafs and got off to a hot start scoring first but in the end it wasn’t enough, but a point is a point.
With 8 minutes left in the 1st the boys in red turned the goose egg to a tally. On a nice rush Taylor Raddysh gets his 3rd of the season after throwing the puck off a Leaf’s defender which snuck past the Toronto goalie to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
John Tavares got the equalizer off some nifty dangles which drew the Caps D away from Thompson which left a wide open Bobby McCann in front of the net for the easiest tap in of his career, 1-1.
In the closing minutes of the 1st the Capitals took the lead back after some nice passing Protas and Strome connected on a smooth give and go which Strome’s defender got caught puck watching which left Strome wide open in front only having to make one deke to beat the Leaf’s tendy, 2-1 Caps.
This was Strome’s 5th of the season and Protas’s 9th apple of the season which ranks him 2nd on the team tied with Carlson.
After a lot of back and forth in the 2nd it didn’t get eventful till 2 minutes left in the period. Strome had a great transition pass to Protas who fed Ovi for the snapshot which then was deflected off the goalie to Sandin who gave it back to Protas who was sitting wide open at the bottom of the right faceoff circle for the easy wrist shot goal, 3-1 Caps.
This was Protas’s 6th goal of the season and 4th multi-point game.
With around 4 minutes left in the game Wilson made a costly turnover to Mathew Knies who total undressed and beat LT leading to a tap in from Nylander, 3-2 Caps lead.
https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1856898413259849831
Then with the goalie pulled on the dumb crosscheck penalty from Dowd giving them a power play making it 6v4 with less than a minute left in regulation. Leafs won the important faceoff leading to a couple passes ending with a one timer from Mitch Marner to tie the game at 3 a piece.
The video below is what probably stuck in Dowd’s head which crossed his wires which lead to the crosscheck.
https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1856901314862547395
The Caps got a great chance in OT where the puck snuck out in front to a wide open Ovi who ripped a clapper but was blocked left pad side. The rebound was knocked out by Marner to a hustling Tavares who took it at the right faceoff circle who made a deke or too and beat LT five hole to give the Leafs a 4-3 win.
https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1856904353329631516
Yes, was this an epic collapse by our guys there were some bright spots. Our top lines played great especially Protas and Strome who have elevated their game.
When the Caps are playing with a lead during 5v5 they are seeing only 43% of the shot attempts, 39.8 percent of the expected goals, 45.5 percent of the scoring chances, and 47.9 percent of the high-danger chances. That expected goals percentage is the seventh worst in the NHL (Not great).
Logan Thompson compared to Kuemper is night and day holy crap. LT was great tonight in spurts, but he was definitely left out to dry on most of the goals last night.
Our 3rd line was the least productive again especially Lapierre. Eller is back on the squad which should give us some structure and veteran play for the young guys to lean on, but the way Lappy has been playing it has been causing a negative effect on his linemates. Which is causing the 4th line to play 3rd line minutes.
The boys will try and stay even with wins and losses this month when they head to Colorado and the thin air and a team who’s struggling between the pipes so if I’m a betting man take the over.
The Morning Skate 