Caps Take on Leafs
Caps tangle with one of League's hottest teams when Toronto comes to town on Saturday
Two nights after playing extremely well in a 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars here in D.C., the Capitals continue their three-game homestand with a visit from one of the NHL's hottest teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs blow into town on Saturday night to supply the opposition for the middle match of Washington's homestand.
In Thursday's loss against Dallas, the Caps pumped 46 pucks on Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, but were only able to beat him once. Alex Ovechkin accounted for five of those shots on Oettinger, but the Caps captain remains at 800 career goals and will try again to catch the legendary Gordie Howe (801) for second place on the all-time goals ledger on Saturday night against the Leafs.
Ovechkin did collect the primary helper on Washington's lone goal of the game against Dallas, firing a slap pass feed to Conor Sheary for a back-door tap-in midway through the second period to give the Caps a 1-0 lead. But Dallas struck twice in 79 seconds early in the third, tying the game on a Jamie Benn power-play goal and taking the lead on a Colin Miller point shot that bounded off Lars Eller's back and past Washington netminder Charlie Lindgren.
Thursday's setback ended Washington's season-long winning streak at five games and also stopped Lindgren's own personal streak at five, which matches his career best.
"That's a good team over there and we've been on a pretty good run," says Caps winger T.J. Oshie. "They're one of the more elite teams we've played in the last couple, so I thought we responded really well off the hop. There was obviously a lot of attention with [Ovechkin] doing some amazing things, but as a team we played pretty good.
"We'd like to take back that minute and half or so, but I thought we still battled back. After the year we've had, it would have been easy for us to get down a goal there and go away, but we kept working and we were right there until the very end. We just ran out of time."
Oettinger has now defeated the Caps twice this season, stopping 72 of 73 shots in the process. He blanked Washington 2-0 on 27 shots in Dallas on Oct. 27.
"He played really big," says Oshie. "I thought we could have done a better job of maybe getting in front of him a little bit more, but he's a big man there and he played an awesome game. He's tough to score on. I had a couple of looks at him and he was right on the money. When you run into goalies like that, your defense has to step up and try to close them out, and hopefully one is enough. Tonight, it wasn't."
While their winning streak is over, the Capitals' stretch of strong play remains intact. Thursday's game was their first game back home after playing eight of the previous nine games on the road, and they turned in a sturdy overall performance, particularly in the second period when they essentially gave the Stars nothing, limiting Dallas to four long range shots on net at 5-on-5, with none of them coming in the final 13 minutes of the period.
"We played extremely well," says Lindgren. "I think we were making plays, working hard, getting it behind their [defense], putting pucks to the net. I thought we played very well defensively again. There was a lot of good that came out of tonight. Obviously, it sucks to lose the game, but there were some positives to come out of it."
Until their heels were cooled by a 3-1 setback against the Rangers in New York on Thursday, the Leafs had pulled at least a point from every game they played over the last month plus, a stretch of 15 games (12-0-3). That spree has lifted the Leafs to within four points of the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Atlantic Division, and the Bruins have managed to remain hot since their 5-2 opening night win over the Caps here on Oct. 12.
Toronto lost a 4-2 home ice decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 11, and then proceeded to outscore the opposition by a combined 58-27 over their next 15 contests. Only five times in those 15 games did the Leafs allow more than two goals against in a game, and in two of those instances the third goal came beyond the 60-minute mark.
In Thursday's loss to the Rangers, Toronto forward Mitch Marner's point streak came to a halt at 23 games (11 goals, 21 assists). Along with Chicago's Patrick Kane (26 games in 2015-16) and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby (25 games in 2010-11), Marner is one of only three active NHL players to put together a scoring streak of 23 or more games, a feat that has been achieved only 20 times in League history.
