The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Washington Capitals, the NHL’s fourth-placed team coming into the game, by a 4-2 scoreline on Saturday night in what was arguably their most impressive win of the 2016-17 season so far.
First Period
The first two minutes of the game didn’t suggest domination by the Leafs was soon to take place, but a piece of magic from Mitch Marner at the 17:30 mark provided the spark that sent the Leafs on their way. Identifying that he had some time to make a play on the halfwall in the defensive zone, Marner picked out Matt Martin in stride as he came off the bench and slipped in behind John Carlson. Martin finished his second goal in as many games – his first two of his Leaf career, both off of the rush/in breakaway or partial breakaway situations – by leaning into a wrister that Braden Holtby only got a piece of. The Leafs’ first shot attempt of the game put them up 1-0 2:35 into the proceedings.
The Leafs started to pour it on from there, starting on the very next shift as Nikita Soshnikov – up on a line with Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri due to the injury to William Nylander – got a jump on the lost defensive zone faceoff at center ice and tested Holtby. The Leafs scrambled the Capitals in their own zone and generated a flurry of four shot attempts, culminating in a Kadri wraparound attempt after he stripped Karl Alzner behind the net.
After Mitch Marner’s line kept the Capitals on their heels with a couple of rushes, as the Leafs forwards changed Jake Gardiner made a subtle but smart play through neutral ice; he took the space available to him, bought time, and gained the offensive zone before ringing the puck around the boards into the far corner, where Auston Matthews was able to beat Daniel Winnik to the puck coming off of the bench. Matthews lost possession briefly but seamlessly rolled off the check from Brooks Orpik, recovering the puck and drawing a penalty. Surrounded behind the net, Matthews shielded the puck down low and fought off Orpik again, extending possession. If not for a d-to-d pass from Matt Hunwick that was way off the mark, the Leafs would’ve generated some bonus man-advantage time and additional looks at goal.
Swift puck movement off the draw by Jake Gardiner, Peter Holland and Auston Matthews led to a chance for Matthews only for his stick to shatter. More quality puck movement from the Marner-run PP unit – now with Soshnikov roving the slot – led to a redirect by Soshnikov in the slot that deflected into the crowd. No goal came from it, but it was a really positive powerplay from the Leafs, including a couple of smooth zone entries by Marner and some tantalizing one-touch passing at the top of the umbrella that successfully pulled the penalty killing units apart. Morgan Rielly ripped a one-timer that Holtby managed to get a piece of despite a deflection, and the powerplay ended with a point-blank chance for Soshnikov at the top of the crease that Holtby turned aside.
With the flow of momentum in the Leafs favour, the Capitals iced the puck before Soshnikov recovered the puck on a scrambled draw, steering the puck into the path of Kadri for a point-blank scoring chance. The Leafs lost the next draw, but a pinch down the wall by Rielly kept the Capitals hemmed in briefly before Ovechkin’s line created a spell of Washington possession in the Leaf zone for the first time in a long time. It didn’t last long; Kadri picked off a pass and drove the play north before the Capitals iced the puck for the third time.
Babcock opted to send the fourth line – now with Peter Holland next to Ben Smith and Martin — over the boards against a tired Capitals top line and it worked out as designed. Smith won the faceoff and the Leafs generated three shots on goal, including a Gardiner rip from the point that was well saved by Holtby, before drawing a penalty.
With the Marner, JVR, Bozak, Soshnikov and Rielly unit on to start the powerplay, JVR rang the iron on his between-the-legs move in front of the net after taking a pass down low from Marner. The powerplay fizzled out after that with a couple of busted entries.
The game opened up into a back-and-forth flow for a few minutes after the Leafs’ second powerplay, with Andersen seeing his first pair of shots in quite a while and JVR and Rielly getting a couple of looks from the high slot. With seven minutes to go in the first, the CSN broadcast credited the Leafs with eight scoring chances to the Capitals’ 1.
After the Capitals took their third penalty of the period – a high stick on Tyler Bozak by Justin Williams – the Leafs’ powerplay was their worst effort of their three man-advantages in the opening frame, unable to set up against a Capitals penalty kill that was noticeably more aggressive than on the first two Leaf powerplays.
The Leafs finished the first period up 15-6 in shots and 25-11 in shot attempts.
Second Period
The Capitals looked to be finding their footing in the game to start the second before a flubbed d-to-d pass by Karl Alzner at the offensive blueline sent Peter Holland away on a breakaway, drawing a holding penalty.
The Leafs finally cashed in with the man advantage after a nice entry by Morgan Rielly saw him skate a loop around the Washington net before setting up the zone. With Marner pulling the strings from the half wall, he found JVR to the side of the net and this time — after his drop pass to Soshnikov from the side of the net generated a rebound — JVR found the mesh, not the post, with a deft wedge shot over Holtby’s glove.
The Kadri line again got the better of Ovechkin and co. following the powerplay; Soshnikov went flying into traffic behind the net, emerging with the puck and setting up Leo Komarov for a one-timer that forced a good pad save out of Holtby. 25 minutes in, the Leafs led 2-0 on the scoreboard, 20-8 on the shot clock and 11-2 in scoring chances by CSN’s count.
This play with 13 minutes remaining in the second period is a good demonstration of something we spoke about in our player grades at the quarter pole. While the goals against/60 and possession results have been ugly for the Bozak, Marner and JVR line so far this season, it has little to do with Marner. As seen below, Marner is the first man back, playing with urgency, stripping pucks and starting the transition the other way. At the top of .gif, Bozak is seen coasting in an upright position with his stick by his waist before finding his feet once the puck is going the other way.
The Leafs took their first penalty of the game eight minutes into the second period – a weak holding call on what was a good, clean back check by Zach Hyman. The Leafs’ puck pressure prevented a clean set up for the first 1:30 before Frederik Andersen came up with his best pair of saves to this point of the game, first on Brett Connolly’s one-timer in the slot and then on Alex Ovechkin from the bottom of the left circle.
Another debatable call – Komarov for hooking – set up the Capitals with a 24-second 5-on-3 advantage. John Carlson missed the net twice from the top of the circle, one of which cleared the zone for the Leafs, who survived the kill.
Marner’s next piece of magic came shortly after the penalties. He won a puck battle down low, turned back, went for a lap around the net and deceptively changed speeds, cutting through the middle and catching the Capitals flat footed before dishing off to a wide-open Bozak. Marner’s play was worthy of a goal, but Bozak couldn’t elevate a wobbling puck and Holtby stretched out to make a good save.
A minute later, after standing in front of a point shot and limping to the bench in pain, Marner was credited with his 15th shot block of the season — second among Leaf forwards.
Andersen was the Leafs’ best penalty killer on their third penalty of the game after an elbowing call on Nazem Kadri with six minutes remaining in the period. He turned aside Nicklas Backstrom on a point-blank chance in the slot and gave out no rebound on Nate Schmidt’s point shot with traffic in front.
The Leafs got a powerplay of their own shortly after – their fifth in the first 34 minutes after a boarding call on Dmitry Orlov. Nazem Kadri rang the iron on a wicked one-timer, set up by Matthews, from the top of the circle that beat Holtby clean but not the crossbar.
Third Period
Great work from Connor Brown – who won puck battle after puck battle throughout the game — on the first shift of the third period led to an insurance goal for the Maple Leafs. After sealing the wall on a chip out attempt by Orlov, Brown stripped the Caps defenceman of the puck with a stick lift from behind before finding Hyman in front for a point-blank one-timer that Holtby somehow turned aside with his right pad. The rebound sprung out to the left boards, where Hunwick put the puck back on net and Matthews jumped on the rebound for his third goal in two games.
The first major crack in the Leafs’ defence at even strength was cleaned up by a good save – again, with no rebound – from Andersen after Backstrom split Gardiner and Carrick through the middle and walked in all alone.
Matt Martin and Tom Wilson squared off six minutes into the final frame for Martin’s fourth fight of the season, giving him two-thirds of the Gordie.
The shot count read 34-22 Toronto with 14 minutes to go — scoring chances 16-10 Toronto – and finished at 37-35 by the end of the period. Score effects set in and Andersen needed to be sharp to finish the game, but the Leafs also generated some chances on the counter, including a breakaway for Mitch Marner and a beautiful put-away goal from Nazem Kadri.
Andersen’s best save of the game came at the seventh-minute mark after a deflection fell perfectly for John Carlson with an empty net waiting; Andersen recovered to make an outstretched glove save of the ten-bell variety. He could do nothing about the Backstrom goal that spoiled his clean sheet, however, as Marcus Johansson was left wide open at the back post and Alex Ovechkin was the hungriest player in front on the ensuing goalmouth scramble.
Kadri’s ninth of the season came off a set play; he won the defensive zone draw and raced up ice before collecting on a ‘bump’ pass from Leo Komarov in the neutral zone after a ring around the boards. Kadri walked around the Caps defence and finished with aplomb through Holtby’s fivehole.
The Capitals kept things mildly interesting with a 4-2 goal after a Johansson shot in the slot took a deflection off of Rielly’s skate and looped over top of Frederik Andersen. The Leafs spent the final 2:20 of the game with the same five players on the ice due to an icing — the Kadri, Komarov and Soshnikov line along with the Rielly/Zaitsev pairing – but two timeouts called by Babcock and Barry Trotz provided breathers and the Leafs managed to limit the Capitals to just two shots (both John Carlson point shots) to close out the win.
Post Game Notes
– The Leafs gave Capitals fits with their speed and showed more urgency in their puck battles, taking full advantage of a tired Washington team playing its third in four nights (and second of a back-to-back). The ACC remains a fortress, with eight Leaf wins over 11 home games.
– Moving Nikita Soshnikov up in the lineup produced the sort of result many fans were anticipating while he toiled away on the fourth line for 11 games showing only flashes of what he could do in limited opportunity. That line owned nearly 70% of the shot attempts against the Ovechkin – Kuznetsov line. Brown fills the role effectively on that line, to be sure, and he won puck battle after puck battle in this game while playing on Matthews’ wing. Soshnikov can bring some ‘grease’, in the words of Babcock; he’s undaunted by the challenge and doesn’t shy away from taking the odd run at a star player on the other team. He works hard over 200 feet of the ice, too, and adds a shot threat to the line. Nice to have quality depth and options.
– Mixing Soshnikov into the Marner-led powerplay unit as the rover in the slot was an instant success as well, with his left-handed shot providing an option for the right-handed Marner as he runs the show from the right-side halfwall. Soshnikov’s ability to get the puck on and off his stick quickly makes him a threat that has to be respected there. We may see more of this going forward given its success last night.
– This was the best game of the season for the pairing of Nikita Zaitsev and Morgan Rielly. Zaitsev was a force; breaking up plays at the defensive blueline with tight gaps and good stick positioning, giving Ovechkin — who he went head to head against in the RD vs. LW matchup — little room to breathe off the rush, and winning his battles down low in the defensive zone. Rielly and Zaitsev finished with 72% possession when Ovechkin was on the ice.
– With his two-point night (and sixth multi-point game of the season already), Mitch Marner moved into a tie for the rookie scoring lead with 18 points, with Auston Matthews right on his heels with 17. Nylander is fourth with 15. Never has three of the top five rookie scorers come from one NHL team over a full season.
– After one point in his first 13 games, Zach Hyman has five points in his last eight (and three in his last two while playing with Brown on his opposite wing).
– Nylander, who missed the game with an upper-body injury, is not expected to miss significant time according to Mike Babcock.
All Situations Shot Attempts
Shot Location Chart
