Ryan Leonard may have played his best game as a member of the Washington Capitals on Thursday night, and he did so in a 6-3 loss where he didn’t get on the scoresheet.
The 20-year-old winger was the catalyst for multiple momentum-shifting spells of play for the Capitals as they tried to work their way back into a game where they struggled to finish their chances. Leonard was no exception to those struggles, but dazzled nonetheless in what turned out to be the most offensively active game of his short NHL career.
At the end of regulation, Leonard played 15:08 of ice time and fired seven shots on goal, the most he has recorded in a single game. He had nine shot attempts overall, four individual scoring chances, one individual high-danger chance, one shot block, and several impressive zone entries and plays along the wall.
“I look upfront, I thought Ryan Leonard had his best game as a pro, to be honest with you,” Monumental Sports Network’s Craig Laughlin said postgame. “His skating, his shooting. He was making moves. He looked very comfortable.”
Perhaps Leonard’s nicest highlight of the night came early in the second period after he picked up a pass from Rasmus Sandin in the neutral zone. The 2023 first-round pick dangled around defenseman Donovan Sebrango at the blueline, curled the puck around the stick of Jeff Petry, and was only done in by one of many brilliant saves from Panthers netminder Daniil Tarasov.
“I don’t know the total shots or whatever, but yeah, we had a lot of really good looks,” Leonard said after the loss. “I mean, it’s tough sometimes when the puck’s not really going in at the start of the game, and then their goalie starts to feel it a little bit, and it’s honestly the last thing you want when a goalie gets confident like that. So he played great, but we’ve got to find a way to put those pucks past him with that many shots.”
After the Capitals were unable to put away many of their chances in the first two periods, head coach Spencer Carbery threw his forward lines into a blender and put Leonard with Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier. The third-year bench boss, who recently stated that he is trying to pick his spots better with Leonard, remarked that he liked what he saw from the new trio, which could hint at a more permanent promotion for Leonard in the coming games.
“Liked Leonard when we moved him with Strome there in the third period,” Carbery said. “[He] had some good opportunities at the net front that sets up our third goal. I liked a lot of what the combinations in the third did.”
Leonard has eight points (3g, 5a) through 17 games in his rookie NHL campaign. He has 12 shots on goal combined in his last two games and ranks fifth among Capitals forwards in total shots (35) this season. His 22.9 shot attempts per 60 minutes rank first on the club, just ahead of Alex Ovechkin (22.8).
Among all NHL players in the league, he ranks sixth in the stat, topped only by Cutter Gauthier (26.1), Tage Thompson (26.0), Alex DeBrincat (24.9), David Pastrnak (23.7), and Nikita Kucherov (22.9).
