📸: Dr Kat from #crashers
The Washington Capitals hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs at Capital One Arena on Thursday night. The Caps were looking to end a three-game losing skid and put an end to some recent good form from the Maple Leafs.
Aliaksei Protas finished off a fantastic feed from Justin Sourdif to open the scoring. Jakob Chychrun pounced on a rebound to double the lead and then added another in the third. John Carlson continued the scoring from defense, pumping home a fourth goal. Logan Thompson shutout!
Capitals beat Maple Leafs 4-0!
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Outside of a couple of very bad penalties, I really liked the Capitals’ game in the first period. Obviously, the two goals are great, but they controlled play like they haven’t been lately. Toronto, under Craig Berube, has been a relatively easy team to dominate five-on-five, so the Caps should be doing what they did to start the game. Great start back on the right track.
At the time of scoring his 13th goal of the season, Jakob Chychrun would either outright lead or be tied for the lead in goal scoring on eight different NHL teams. In this game for Toronto, only Auston Matthews (14) had more goals than Chychrun this year for the Maple Leafs. He then would tie Matthews with a goal in the third. Goodness.
Justin Sourdif had his feet moving, and his hands to match. His feed to Aliaksei Protas for the opening goal was just one of many dazzling moves from him in this game. Would love to see more consistency from Sourdif in the offensive zone because his speed can be a true difference. Tremendous game from him.
I didn’t love the first half of the second period, but the Capitals got back to it in the second half and dominated possession again. There were a few bizarre individual decisions with the puck, but outside of that, they kept Logan Thompson pretty protected. Dennis Hildeby was pretty great in Toronto’s net, and the only reason they didn’t head into the third down more than two goals.
No power-play goals for the Capitals, but the man advantage looked a ton better than it has in recent games. A couple of posts and some bad bounces kept them from denting the twine.
Alex Ovechkin put multiple dents in the posts as the big man definitely had his shooting gloves on. He had six shot attempts through two periods.
It was Caps Canine Night, hence all the doggos around the rink. Has a team ever tried a cat-themed night and survived to tell the tale? I assume no.
Can’t complain about anything in the third period. Just a super solid shutdown frame. Well done.
Huge night from the penalty kill as they killed off all five of Toronto’s power plays. The Leafs are even worse than the Capitals on the power play this season. What a mess of a team right now. They need a big-time revamp.
Second shutout of the season for Logan Thompson. Hockey Canada will still find a way to not take him to Italy.
The Capitals will practice on Friday and then have a home-and-home back-to-back against the Detroit Red Wings this weekend.