Toronto Trounces Caps, 7-3

Two nights after the Caps put a 9-2 thumping on the Philadelphia Flyers in a finale of a short homestand, they found themselves on the business side of a 7-3 beating at the hands of the Maple Leafs at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena.

Michael Bunting, William Nylander and Ilya Mikheyev each scored twice for Toronto, and Ilya Lyubushkin notched his first goal as a member of the Leafs to account for the Maple Leafs' offensive bounty in Thursday night's win over Washington.
After allowing two or fewer goals against in each of its previous two games, the Caps looked much slower than the Leafs, and Toronto was able to carve its way through the Washington defense far too easily and on far too many occasions.
"From the start there, they were coming out harder," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom. "They were first on pucks, and we weren't really there, I think. It's one of those games you want to forget."
Things started out poorly for the Caps on Thursday night, and they unraveled swiftly - and to an elevated level - in the middle of the second period when Toronto erupted for three goals in a span of 4 minutes and 25 seconds. The first of those three Leafs goals came just 13 seconds after Washington had halved the Toronto lead to 2-1 on a great individual effort from John Carlson.
For the second time in as many meetings with Toronto this season, the Caps dug themselves an early hole. The Leafs went up 1-0 on a Bunting goal at 4:37 of the first, and they tacked on a second one late in the opening frame when Nylander made it a 2-0 game at 13:45 of the first.
At the time of the first television timeout at 7:47 of the first, the Caps were on the wrong side of a lopsided 13-1 disparity in shot attempts at 5-on-5. Ilya Samsonov started in net for the Caps, and he made dazzling stops on Nylander and Auston Matthews in the first to keep the cork in the bottle for a bit longer.
In the early portion of the second period, the Caps missed a pair of golden opportunities to get on the board when first Marcus Johansson and then Tom Wilson each fanned on an excellent look at a mostly empty net from in tight.
The complexion of the contest changed midway through the middle period when Washington's Matt Irwin and Toronto's Pierre Engvall were sent to the box for matching roughing minors following a skirmish in the corner.
Initially, that stretch of 4-on-4 hockey was good for the Caps. With the two teams playing 4-on-4 hockey, Carlson made it a 2-1 game with a beauty of a goal, cutting around a pair of Toronto defenders and then to the middle, and beating Leafs goalie Jack Campbell to make it a 2-1 game at 10:06 of the second.
But that was the high-water mark for Washington on this night. Thirteen seconds later, Lyubushkin restored the two-goal cushion with a center point drive. Eighteen seconds after that, Nylander netted his second of the night - and 30th of the season - to make it 4-1, putting an end to Samsonov's night.
"The 4-on-4 was really no different than a reflection of the entire first period, or parts of the second period after that, or parts of the third period after that," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "The 4-on-4 wasn't good, but there was a lot that wasn't good tonight."
Vitek Vanecek came on in relief, and he was quickly dented by Mikheyev at 14:44 and Bunting at 16:25. Bunting's goal was Toronto's fourth in a span of 6 minutes and 6 seconds, making it a 6-1 game at that point.
As he typically does when playing in his hometown of Toronto, Wilson scored to make it a 6-2 game late in the second period, soon after exiting the penalty box after a bout with Leafs winger Kyle Clifford.
Mikheyev got loose and scored his second of the night early in the third period, and Nic Dowd notched his ninth of the season for Washington at 11:58 of the third to close out the scoring.
Thursday's loss ended the Caps' four-game winning streak, the third time this season they haven't been able to stretch their season-high winning run to five straight games. The loss also ended Washington's road winning streak at five games in a row.
"In the first, we didn't do a good enough job of getting back and supporting each other, all five guys," says Dowd. "Toronto did a good job of getting pucks in early, and then maintaining a forecheck, and that's where their chances and their goals came from, for the most part. And then they made some plays, too."