The Toronto Maple Leafs Lose to the Capitals for Second Loss in a Row

The Toronto Maple Leafs have gotten excellent goaltending all season long.

The Toronto Maple Leafs went a full month without losing, and even during that month they played  a few bad games but managed to win them, either through luck or good goaltending.

Last night though, the team played OK, the goalie had an off night and that was that.

Capitals 5 Leafs 2

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Washington Capitals

Ilya Samsonov was cut by the Capitals, the team that drafted him, and he wanted to show them up in a big way.

He did not.

No big deal, he’s having a solid season and I’m sure he’ll get another chance.

All seven of last night’s goals came 5v5, and the Leafs were the better team all night – they had the puck more, they took more shots, had more scoring chances, and if the goalies played equally, the Leafs would have won.

Denis Malgin wrang one off the post.

Rasmus Sandin was robbed in alone.

The best player in the game, by far, was Charlie Lindgren of the Capitals.

The Malgin, Marner, Tavares line was the only Leafs line that was underwater, and as much as I like Denis Malgin as a waterbug on the fourth line, I don’t think I need to spell out for you the problem.

With Nick Robertson out, I don’t think the Leafs should really rush to trade for a winger, but I think its pretty clear that Denis Malgin is not the star-in-the-making the Leafs need on the left wing of their co-top line. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

It was the first time this season the Toronto Maple Leafs lost two games in a row in regulation. That is very impressive for December 18th.

The Leafs have gotten very consistent play from Auston Matthews so far this season, but the fact that it’s December, they have played over a third of the schedule, and are flirting with first place despite the fact that he hasn’t even gone on one of those out-of-his-mind streaks that he’s bound to go on for ten or twenty games eventually.

Matthews has been good, even great so far.  But he has another level and the fact that the Leafs are where they are without it, is a great sign for the future.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, ironically, have lost two games in a row they probably should have won.  This is ironic because they went 15 games without losing, and played much worse at times during the streak.