The Washington Capitals returned home from their long foray out west on Wednesday night and were met with a hungry Toronto Maple Leafs team looking to avenge a tough loss to the Philadelphia Flyers from the night prior. The Leafs ended up doing just that in a big way.
This one got ugly on the scoreboard.
- The thing about the final scoreline is that I really don’t think the Capitals played all that badly in this game. They were probably the better team for the majority of the night but Toronto did their damage in short bursts and the damage was severe. The Capitals just had zero answers for the star trio of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares as the three combined for 11 total points (4g, 7a), and at least one of the three was involved in every Toronto goal.
- It’s tough to point fingers at Charlie Lindgren after he has been so lights out in March but this was a shockingly bad night for him. Lindgren made just 23 stops on 30 shots and MoneyPuck had him giving up a brutal 4.56 more goals than expected. Maybe there’s a little fatigue setting in there?
- I have to admit that any Capitals loss is always much easier to take when Alex Ovechkin scores a goal and he got two in this one. Ovi has had back-to-back, two-goal efforts and is now just 49 goals away from sharing the NHL’s all-time record with Wayne Gretzky (894).
Connor McMichael scores his 15th goal of the season to make the score 3-2. McMichael has scored four goals in his last five games.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 21, 2024
- Ivan Miroshnichenko grabbed an assist on Connor McMichael’s second-period tally, his fourth career point (2g, 2a) which he has amassed in his last eight games. Miro spent 3:10 of ice time on a line at five-on-five with his idol Ovechkin in the loss.
- Pretty rough night for the whole fourth line as they were on the ice for three five-on-five goals against and none for the Capitals. That matchup with Matthews’ line clearly did not go to plan.
- While the loss certainly doesn’t help things for the Capitals (75 points) in terms of their chase of a playoff spot, it also doesn’t really hurt them. None of the other teams around them in the East played on Wednesday night and they still hold a game in hand on both the Flyers (78 points) and Detroit Red Wings (76 points).
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
