Washington Capitals Destroy Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0, Make Gains For Playoff Spot
Coming off a brutal loss to the New York Rangers, the Washington Capitals had an important away win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 8, blanking them 4-0. The Capitals are in a tight race for the second wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with three teams already qualified and a fourth to be determined.
The Capitals have 89 points on the season and are tied with the New York Islanders. They will need to score highly in their next few games to make it, but there is a little possibility.
Maple Leafs Lose Stolarz In First Period
The game didn’t start particularly well for Toronto, as Antony Stolarz fell on the ice following a save where he kicked his shin out onto the ice and apparently caught a puck under the padding. He was helped off the ice a few minutes later.
Joseph Woll had a few words to say after the game about Stolarz’s injury. “He’s a pretty tough dude so if he goes down, it’s tough to see. I checked in on him, seems like he’s doing all right. I don’t know the extent of the injury; it’s not for me to say.”
Dylan Strome scored the Capitals’ first goal at 13:22, assisted by Anthony Beauvillier and Martin Féhérvary. At the end of the first period, shots were tied at 7-7, and the Capitals led 1-0.
Capitals Pull Away From Maple Leafs In Second Period
Ryan Leonard, who had gotten a holding penalty late in the first period, was just 8 seconds out of the penalty box when he scored, assisted by Tom Wilson, at 0:40 of the second period. Féhervary scored at 2:53, assisted by Strome and Justin Sourdif. It was Féhérvary’s fifth of the season, while Leonard has scored 18 this season.
The Capitals did not manage to score on a power play in either the first or second period, something that they have struggled to do this season. It’s a serious issue, and something that could stop them from scoring enough goals to make the playoffs in what is likely to be Alex Ovechkin’s last season.
The Capitals led the Maple Leafs 3-0 after the second period, with shots still tied at 16. In the third period, Cole Hutson scored at 16:10 with assistance from Aliaksei and Ilya Protas. Hutson looked mortified after realizing that he could have passed to Ilya to try and get the rookie a goal in his first game, like Hutson pulled off a few weeks ago. The Maple Leafs lost 4-0 in the end in what was an ugly game on both sides.
Reactions and What’s Next
Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery was happy about the goals but not about the overall level of play from his team. “You could feel it early on; it was both teams trading odd man rushes, pucks were bobbling, but we did enough to build a lead, and I thought we got better from a checking defensive standpoint as the game went along, especially in the third period. Logan, when we needed him, was real solid. Wasn’t a ton of action, but we needed a few big saves, and he made those.”
Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube was also not impressed with the game. “We did some good things, had some opportunities, but we didn’t capitalize on any of them. They got a few odd-man rushes where we turned the puck over and capitalized on a couple goals. That’s really the difference in the game.”
The Capitals have three games left to try and make the playoffs, with an away game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 11. That will be vitally important, as the Penguins sit 7 points ahead of them in the Metropolitan Conference standings. The Maple Leafs will play a home game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on April 11.
