Caps Clash with Leafs
Caps finish up season-opening set of back-to-backs in Toronto on Thursday night
After falling 5-2 to the Boston Bruins in their season opening contest at Capital One Arena on Wednesday night, the Caps hustled off to the airport for an international flight. They're making a quick trip north to Toronto to supply the opposition for the Maple Leafs' home opener on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
Washington fell down by two goals in the first period on a Patrice Bergeron power-play goal and a David Pastrnak turnaround shot from the slot several minutes later. Before the first television timeout of the middle frame, Boston extended its lead to 3-0 on a Taylor Hall goal.
The Caps got on the board with an Anthony Mantha tally less than two minutes after the Hall goal, and they pulled to within a goal when Conor Sheary scored on a 2-on-1 rush in the back half of the second. Washington's power play came up short in two bids for the equalizer later in the second period, and the Bruins salted the game away on a late David Krejci goal followed by an empty-netter.
"There were goals missing," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, when asked about the power play. "Again there was some disconnect. At times - not the power play, just us in general - we were disjointed it seemed, for the first half of the game. We wanted a puck to be there, it wasn't. We weren't on the mark with the pass or we weren't on the mark with positioning, or we got outnumbered in the battle, whatever it might be. We just weren't clicking, we weren't in synch.
"We had been pretty good all through training camp and I just didn't like the first half of the game, the first period especially. The second period we started to push back and started to compete better in the battles and win the battles and control the game a little bit better. We wanted to play to our identity, and they defended well, and they got some timely saves, big saves in the second half of the game."
Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves in his Washington debut, playing in his 300th NHL game as well. Charlie Lindgren is the likely starter for the Caps in net on Thursday against the Leafs, and he will also be making his regular season debut in a Capitals sweater.
Both Caps goals came off the rush, and although Washington generated a lot of offensive zone time in the second half of the game, the Bruins defended the area in front of their net very well. Boston combined to block 20 shots on the night, with nine of those coming in the first period.
"They scored off a power play early and were able to get momentum off of that," says Sheary. "For most of the first, I thought they controlled the play. But after that, we upped our work [level] and we carried a lot of it. It was a pretty good game, it was just unfortunate it didn't go our way."
Losing the special teams battle and starting slowly proved to be too much for the Caps to overcome, as they failed to earn at least a point in their home opener for the first time since 2012-13.
Now the Caps make the first of three one-game road trips to start the season, facing the Leafs in the first of two visits to Toronto this season, and going up against former teammate Ilya Samsonov, who is expected to be the Maple Leafs' starting goaltender for Thursday's game. Toronto also lost its season opener, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Canadiens in Montreal on Wednesday night.
Toronto twice owned one-goal leads over the Habs in Wednesday's opener, but the two teams entered the third period all even at 2-2. Making his Montreal debut on his birthday, Sean Monahan gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead with 2:30 left in the third, scoring on a rebound.
Just 40 seconds later, William Nylander converted on a 2-on-1 rush, tying the game for a third time. But the Leafs were unable to pull a point out of the contest. Montreal's Josh Anderson buried a shot from the slot with 17.9 seconds left to send Toronto home empty-handed.
