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A bizarre defenseman hat trick and stellar work between the pipes: Capitals beat Leafs 5-2

By Chris Cerullo

 3 Comments

December 17, 2022 9:40 pm

The Toronto Maple Leafs were in town to take on the Washington Capitals inside Capital One Arena on Saturday night. Both teams were looking for bounce-back victories after having their winning streaks halted in their last games.

Erik Gustafsson opened the scoring with a bank shot off of Ilya Samsonov’s skate and William Nylander fired home a tying goal not long after. Trevor van Riemsdyk wrapped up the scoring in the first period with a bad bounce goal.

Gustafsson tallied again in the second off of a great feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov but that was again followed up by a Leafs goal this time from Auston Matthews. Garnet Hathaway added the team’s fourth and Gustafsson capped off a hat trick for the fifth.

Capitals beat Leafs 5-2!

  • A crazy, back-and-forth, hectic first twenty minutes that I thought the Caps got the better of the Leafs in. Probably not the style of play that Peter Laviolette loves to see but they were taking it to Toronto for the majority of the frame.
  • Sonny Milano returned from his one-game absence with a non-COVID illness and immediately tallied three assists. He now has 14 points in 20 games for the Caps this season. That is a 57-point pace over a full 82-game schedule.
  • After scoring a grand total of two goals in his first two seasons with the Caps, Trevor van Riemsdyk now has four goals this season in 33 games. In his last four games, he has scored three times. Bizarre.

  • The second period was maybe one step above atrocious. Way, way, way too many scoring chances for the Leafs. If not for Charlie Lindgren, they likely leave that period up two or three goals.
  • In absolutely terrible news, TJ Oshie pulled up lame again without any contact, left the game, and did not return. That’s absolutely brutal. The Caps have been so much better with him in the lineup.
  • Erik Gustafsson scored his first three goals in a Capitals uniform for his first career hat trick. It’s only his second career multi-goal game. What in the absolute what. Goodness. The first Caps defenseman hat trick since Sergei Gonchar had one in 2000.
  • Alex Ovechkin absolutely dumped Conor Timmins into the Caps’ bench with a massive hit. Love to see The Great Eight get physical.

  • The Caps did nothing in the third but it didn’t matter. The stat sheet has Toronto at twelve five-on-five scoring chances to the Caps’ two but I think that’s utterly inaccurate. Toronto didn’t really make any semblance of a fervent comeback like that to my eyes. I do want to throw a shoutout to Nick Jensen though. He was great.
  • Five goals given up by Ilya Samsonov is a season-high. He’s been stellar for them this season.
  • His opposite in the Caps net, Charlie Lindgren had another incredibly good game. He’s carrying the injured Darcy Kuemper’s weight with aplomb.

Next up for the Caps, Jakub Vrana’s Detroit Red Wings will be in town as this mini homestand will come to an end. Then the Caps take a trip up to Ottawa to play the Senators before returning right back to DC.

Headline photo courtesy of @pennybacker

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