The Washington Capitals were dominated in every facet of the game Saturday night, losing to the upstart Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2. The Caps have played three games over the last four nights, but starting goaltender Braden Holtby was not interested in any excuses after the game.
“We were completely embarrassed by a young team,” Holtby said to the media. “I think we need to get to work in practice. Get in better shape. Get working harder. Realize it’s not easy just because we had success last year.”
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Here’s Holtby in his own words after the game.
We weren’t the Washington Capitals out there at all. We were completely embarrassed by a young team. That’s not acceptable in our culture here. We’re going to have to be better. Every one of us. It was embarrassing.
Between periods, Barry’s trying to get us going. We didn’t do it as a group. You look all night, they had two or three options on every play and that’s usually our strength: guys doing their job working for others. We didn’t work for each other at all tonight. On back-to-backs, those are the ones you have to grind it out. We’re going to have to work harder. We’re going to have to be more mentally prepared. We played spoiled tonight.
It shows we’re not moving our feet. We’re not mentally prepared – especially against a team like that. Our coach emphasized that one of their real strengths is their power play – we let them dictate the game with that. It was a game that ended up 4-2 but we didn’t deserve to be anywhere close to that.
I think we need to get to work in practice. Get in better shape. Get working harder. Realize it’s not easy just because we had success last year. I’m not taking anything away from the [Leafs] and their skill, but if we want to be a top team in the league, we need to have a veteran presence. We need to our top guys working.
