If you turned off Thursday’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals before its thrilling overtime finish, you might have thought it was a mess for the victorious home team. And, sure, early on, you were right.
But the Capitals didn’t wait until the morning after to make adjustments. They retooled mid-game and put forth a convincing comeback effort in the back half to fuel that extra-time win.
Key Stats
- The Caps ended up on the right side of shot metrics as well as goals. Toronto was motivated and/or the Caps were sloppy in the game’s first half — DC was down 11 attempts at one point in the second period, but a determined effort — particularly by the middle-six forwards and the Orlov/Niskanen pairing — gave the Caps a ton of momentum in the game’s later stages. They ended up in the black during 5-on-5 with 69 nice shot attempts to Toronto’s 62.
- Auston Matthews was contained. With just one shot on goal and no other attempts, Toronto’s young superstar had a curiously quiet night. He spent most of his time against the Caps’ second line, a great matchup decision by Barry Trotz. The Leafs were out-attempted 19 to 14 during Matthews’ 5-on-5 shifts.
- Tom Wilson hits the twine. His overtime shot was the 20th he’s ever taken in the playoffs, and his first to reach the back of the net. Wilson’s goal joins his two playoff assists, one from each of the last two seasons.
Unsung Hero of the Game
Braden Holtby faced 28 shots in just the first two periods and stopped 26 of them. Holtby saw less action than that in 30 full regular-season games, so this was a busy night even before the second intermission.
And despite giving Caps fans scares early on, Holtby ended the night with a .946 save percentage, a typically excellent playoff performance from one of the world’s finest goalies.
Trend to Watch
With barely over 10 minutes of ice, the Caps’ third line of Lars Eller (11:39), Andre Burakovsky (12:04), and Brett Connolly (10:39) got short shrift. Trotz used his top-six forwards heavily (T.J. Oshie had 21:06), as one would expect in a desperate comeback effort.
But one wonders if the third line’s gaffes in the first period cost them shifts later on. Maybe we’ll see on Saturday.
Full Coverage of Caps vs Leafs
Stats courtesy of Corsica.Hockey, Hockeystats.Ca, and NaturalStatTrick.
Headline photo: CSN Capitals
