The Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Like many Toronto Maple Leafs games, there were both positives and negatives to take away from the game.
If I’m being honest, I didn’t have many expectations coming into this game. The Maple Leafs came into this game on the second half of a back to back playing a well rested Capitals team.
On top of this, they were starting Michael Hutchinson. I disagreed with this move right from the start and I don’t understand the logic in always starting Hutchinson on the second half of the back to back regardless of the opponent, but that’s a topic for another article. Tonight we can focus on the game.
Kapanen Finds His Groove
Let’s start with the positives. Kasperi Kapanen had himself a great game tonight after a rough start to the season. He started the year playing alongside of John Tavares and Mitch Marner, but never looked comfortable considering he was playing on his off-wing. This resulted in a slow start offensively.
But tonight, Kapanen started on the third line alongside of Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev and notched his first goal of the season. He also added two assists on later goals from Ilya Mikheyev and John Tavares.
Mikheyev + Marner and Tavares?
Speaking of Mikheyev, midway through the game Mike Babcock made another line swap and put him alongside of Tavares and Marner, dropping Moore back down to the third line with Kerfoot and Kapanen. I personally liked what I saw out of this change, and I wouldn’t complain if the Maple Leafs decided to go with these lines going forward. Moore and Mikheyev both seem to be the type of players who excel regardless of where in the lineup they play, so I’ll be happy regardless of who they opt to go with on the Tavares line until Hyman gets back.
Brutal Second Period
Now let’s take a look at the negatives. We can start with the fact that the entire team essentially fell apart in the second period, taking a couple of stupid penalties and allowing three goals in under two minutes. It seemed as though last night was the polar opposite of the game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. The Maple Leafs killed it in the first period and fell apart in the second, rather than the other way around.
Stubborn Coaching..Again
Arguably the most infuriating part of the game for me, however, was once again Mike Babcock’s stubbornness hurting the team. The Leafs had almost two minutes of action with the goalie pulled towards the end, looking to tie the game and send it to overtime, and guess who didn’t see a second of ice time during that timespan?
Did you guess Auston Matthews and/or Mitch Marner? If so, you’re bang on.
I’m not a coach, but in situation where you need a goal to keep the game going, would you not want your star players out there? Hell, Alex Kerfoot saw the ice for the entire last two and a half minutes. Yet Matthews and Marner didn’t see it at all. This seems kind of off to me.
Overall, the Toronto Maple Leafs looked great in the first, horrible in the second, and better, but still flat in the third. Michael Hutchinson didn’t have a great game, letting in 4 goals on 32 shots, but he wasn’t the sole reason for the loss. The reason was a combination of iffy goaltending, questionable coaching decisions, and a horrible two-minute span in the second period.
The Leafs are back home on Saturday night to take on the Boston Bruins. On to the next one.