The Caps entered action on Saturday night looking for their second three-game winning streak of the season. They got it against the NHL’s best offensive team, downing the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 in a game where their captain shone brightest.
The Maple Leafs out-shot the Capitals 29 to 21 and out-attempted them five-on-five 51 to 34. Most of that damage occurred in the third period with the Leafs desperate for a comeback.
- Through 40 minutes the Capitals actually held the advantage when it came to score- and venue-adjusted shot attempts. That advantage spurred their 3-0 lead going into the third period. Tired legs after four games in six nights, some definite turtling, and a young, desperate Maple Leafs team turned the game on its head in the third. The Leafs out-attempted the Caps five-on-five, 20 to 8 in the third alone. However, only four of those attempts got through to Holtby.
- There are about 400 Alex Ovechkin stats in yesterday’s recap linked above. The most important ones are that he now holds the franchise lead in hat tricks at 20. He passed Mike Bossy for sole possession of 21st all-time in goals scored. He now has 115 multiple goal games in the NHL. He passed Nikita Kucherov for the current NHL goal lead and now has five goals in three games since being reunited with long time bff Nicklas Backstrom.
- Tom Wilson had a “quiet” game for his standards as he usually is quite visible when the Caps are in his hometown Toronto. That didn’t mean he wasn’t effective though. Wilson was tops on the team in five-on-five shot attempt differential at a plus-five, tops on the team in five-on-five scoring chance differential at a plus-three, drew a penalty, won a face-off, and did all of that without having to punch anyone in the face.
- Braden Holtby stopped 27 of the 29 shots he faced and came up with a few fabulous stops when the Leafs had six skaters on late in the third. I tend to forget to give props to Holtby in recaps because he’s just so good all the time. We are definitely spoiled by how good he is.
- Jakub Vrana now has three goals in his last three games and four points in his last four games. His seventh of the season makes him currently the third highest goal scorer on the Caps behind only Ovechkin (18) and TJ Oshie (10).
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Maple Leafs
Headline photo: Kevin Sousa
