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It’s an overused term in sports, but this was a gutsy win.

On the road, in the second half of a back-to-back against a rested team, down two in the third, with multiple disallowed goals, the Leafs tied it with the goalie pulled and won it in overtime. 

It was ugly at the start, and if the Leafs lost the game, it would be a much different narrative over the next few days, but kudos to the players for showing some real resolve in the face of adversity and gutting out two points.

Your game in 10:

1.   After such a poor showing the night before, it was fair to expect the Leafs to come out with extra pep in their step. They changed all four lines and two of their three defense pairings. Jani Hakanpaa and Alex Steeves were making their debuts, and Mitch Marner and William Nylander flipped lines. Early on, the Leafs created two glorious chances to open the scoring, but they couldn’t capitalize.

The first came on the first shift for the new third line of Steeves – Kampf – Holmberg, who cycled the Capitals for an extended period before Holmberg dropped his shoulder to come out from behind the goal line with the puck. Holmberg spun and threw the puck to the net (it looked like a pass attempt), where the puck bounced to Steeves, who was all alone in tight.  In real-time, Steeves made the play you wanted to see — pulling it backhand to go around Logan Thompson — but credit to Thompson, who anticipated it and made a big save.

A few shifts later, Marner made a good play at the Leafs‘ blue line to get the puck out and by his defenseman, springing him and Bobby McMann on a 2v1, where he found McMann in tight for a mini-breakaway. Thompson again made a great save. From there, the Capitals started dictating play as they worked the points and the neutral zone.

2.   Just over halfway through the period, the Capitals broke through. The goal itself was a bit lucky; Raddysh drove wide, threw it in front, and the puck deflected off Max Domi’s skate and in. Domi was in that position because he was trying to backcheck to turn a Capitals 3v2 rush into a 3v3, all stemming from a really poor forecheck by the line.

Earlier in the shift, the Leafs dumped it in, and all the Capitals did was far-side rim the puck around the boards to create a 3v2 rush. Look at all three Leafs forwards in deep:

On this forecheck, Knies is the first forechecker (F1) and Domi is the follow-up man (F2) who is supposed to cut off the half-wall and swoop in if Knies can pin down the defenseman. Nylander is the high forward who reads the play (F3), except Nylander drifts off. He’s nowhere near the proper position, and one rim led to an easy exit and odd-man rush from the Capitals’ own zone, like a practice drill.

The goal itself was super lucky, but the process by the Leafs was poor. If you play with fire, you’re asking to get burned.

3.   To the Leafs’ credit, they responded almost immediately, tying the game just under a minute after the Capitals took the lead. 

After Conor Timmins made a quick-up off a busted Capitals zone entry, Pontus Holmberg chipped it up to John Tavares, who went down the ice on a clean 2v2 rush with McMann. Tavares decided to take on Matt Roy and beat him. It was vintage Tavares — attacking the triangle, putting it through his stick his body, going inside-outside, and beating Roy wide. Sandin pulled over as a result of Tavares beating Roy, leaving McMann wide open. Tavares found him, and McMann slammed it home on a sprawling Thompson.

McMann hadn’t scored since potting goals in two of his first three games of the season, making it his first goal in 13 games. As we have seen in the past, he is a player capable of getting hot, so hopefully, it gets him going.

4.   After scoring, the Leafs recorded just one shot on net for the rest of the period. Similar to the night before, they were caved in again in the first period; shot attempts were 26-8. The whole period was played at 5v5, and Washington outplayed them by and large. The Capitals were rewarded with a few minutes left by retaking the lead.

On the goal sequence, the Capitals cycled the puck in the corner, and Dylan Strome curled high and to the net. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was on Strome and peeled off of him to the puck in the corner, where Tavares also went. Protas made a simple pass back to Strome, who was all alone to tuck it in.

In straight man-to-man defense, the goal is purely on OEL. He simply had to follow his man. In more of a zone, it’s on Tavares, who was already in front and could have stayed there while OEL went to the corner. The two clearly weren’t on the same page as to who goes where, but ultimately, OEL can’t peel off a man driving to the middle of the ice without first confirming he has the support to go to the corner, where there was no danger.

This was a really bad sequence between Tavares and OEL, who both needed to communicate there.

5.   The second period was better partly because it couldn’t get much worse. That said, shot attempts at 5v5 were 20-12 for the Leafs, who tilted the ice as the period progressed. They also benefitted from some good fortune as the Capitals scored a goal that was disallowed.

The call was fairly straightforward to me. The would-be goal was a one-timer bomb by John Carlson that Joseph Woll did not see at all. It resulted from Rasmus Sandin walking Ryan Reaves on the point and Reaves not blocking the shot after he was beaten. The called-back goal bailed Reaves out, not that he’d be held accountable or taken out of the lineup for continually doing nothing.

Dowd went through the crease on his own accord and made contact with Woll, even if it was ever so slight. In reality, it’s super soft, but this is the rule.

The Leafs created a collection of good chances themselves — namely, a Domi breakaway from his own blue line and a few Knies chances in front that he couldn’t bear down on.

6.   Both teams went to power plays in the middle frame. Interestingly, from the Leafs’ end, they didn’t use Mitch Marner on the PK until the very end. The coaching staff was presumably looking to preserve his minutes, to some degree, to help the team offensively. It was also partially driven by Matthew Knies getting stuck out for nearly a minute and a half, but he started the penalty kill with Steven Lorentz. The next penalty killer over the boards was Connor Dewar, followed by David Kampf.

It was a good kill by the Leafs. Jake McCabe, in particular, did a great job of disrupting the Capitals and helping to clear the zone. The Leafs went to power play right after, where Knies couldn’t finish a Tavares centering pass. When PP2 hopped the boards, Alex Steeves was on the unit, and Nylander played the full power play — two wrinkles of note.

7.   After the special teams time, the Leafs slowly started tilting the ice in the second half of the period, but it was the Capitals who pounced on a bounce to take a 3-1 lead.

The play started in the Capitals’ zone, where the Leafs held possession and Domi tried centering a pass to Nylander that missed everyone and bounced off the wall to McCabe on the point with ample time and space. The puck bounced on him, but it looked like he was thinking about what he would do with the puck rather than settling it first. It went over his stick (the same thing happened to him during his shift before as well), and it sprung the Capitals on a 2v1.

Both Tanev and McCabe went to Ovechkin on the far side, leaving Alex Protas alone. Lucky for them, Protas tried the pass anyway, Ovechkin got his stick on it, and Tanev blocked the shot. The puck bounced to the trailing Sandin, who then whipped it across to Protas, who put it into the relatively empty net.

Similar to the second goal, Tanev and McCabe weren’t on the same page. It looked to me like Tanev had the pass and should have told McCabe to stay with Protas, but from McCabe’s view, he did have the momentum to try to catch Ovechkin and tried to point Tanev to Protas. At the end of the day, if I’m Tanev, I’m not leaving the best goal scorer of all time while hoping McCabe closes the gap. Either way, they covered the same guy and got burned.

8.   The Leafs did mount a push, namely by double-shifting their top two lines for the start of the period.

Their best chance early on was a Marner rush up the wall before finding McMann cross-ice, but McMann was robbed. The Leafs poured the pressure on and looked like they were finally rewarded courtesy of the fourth line. OEL made a great rush and centered it to Dewar, who was robbed multiple times in the slot. Lorentz cut through and was also robbed before the rebound went off his leg and into the net.

Similar to the Capitals disallowed goal, technically, it’s the correct call. In reality, it’s a bad rule. It was a real blow for a team trying to claw back down two, but there were some positives from Dewar and Lorentz combining to create offense. I think they should compose two-thirds of their fourth line when the team is fully healthy.

The Leafs out-attempted the Capitals 27-9 at 5v5 in the third period and basically played the entirety of the third period in the Washington end. I am not really sure what the Capitals were doing on their part (a furious Spencer Carbery called it embarrassing after the game), but to the Leafs’ credit, their big guns stepped up in the third period after largely doing nothing for the first two.  Marner, in particular, was excellent in the third period after he was tough to find in the first 40 minutes.

The Leafs were finally rewarded for their pressure courtesy of a Knies forecheck on Tom Wilson, which led to a brutal pass by Wilson in the middle of the ice. Knies picked it off, giving him a down-low 2v1 with Nylander. The Capitals sold out on the pass, so Knies kept it, took on Thompson 1v1, hit the post, and Nylander stuck with it to bang the rebound into the empty net. It wasn’t pretty to this point, but the Leafs were digging in. One-goal game.

9.   And then it happened again. Another disallowed goal. This one was particularly painful, as I thought it was a legal goal by the rulebook. The ref in the corner had no chance of cleanly seeing the play but immediately waved it off, so now the review would have to prove otherwise conclusively. I thought it did, but it’s difficult to overturn a call, so the one on the ice stood.  It was a shame. Knies did a great job of muscling his way to the net and getting a stick on a fluttering Rielly point shot.

The Leafs stuck with it. Knies stopped an empty net tap-in with the goalie pulled and then drew a penalty, sending the Leafs to a 6v4. Particularly important is that the penalty was on Nic Dowd, who, as a righty, was getting the better of Tavares on important faceoffs. Instead, with no Dowd, the left-handed McMichael took the faceoff on his forehand side against Tavares’ backhand, and Tavares cleaned him out.

Nylander looked like he had a shooting lane, but he passed it to Rielly, who also had a shooting lane but made a great pass across the ice. McMichael (there he is again!) didn’t close the lane and randomly hovered over to the already-covered Knies.

Marner doesn’t have a bomb of a one-timer, but he’s not missing a clean look like this, and he made no mistake. Tie game, and off to overtime we went.

10.   The Leafs largely controlled the overtime period but weren’t creating much. Tavares, Marner, and OEL went out first, followed by Nylander, Domi, and Rielly, and then Kampf, Knies, and McCabe. The Leafs controlled almost the entire first three minutes, but when the Capitals seized possession, they created a great chance to end it.

Marner tried kicking a puck from the goal line up to Tavares for a break up the ice in the Leafs’ end, but it deflected right to Ovechkin, who was now in all alone against Woll. Ovechkin tried to blast it through the goalie, but Woll came out, made himself big, and stood tall.

The rebound kicked out to Marner, who then made an area pass up the ice. Tavares chased it down (because Thompson didn’t come out and play it, for some reason), then cut right to left, making a nice backhand-forehand-five-hole move to open up Thompson. Tavares’ ninth goal of the season (in just 16 games) sealed the extra point for the Leafs.

11.  Bonus point: The Leafs’ depth is clearly an issue with all of the injuries. All of Marner, Nylander, Tavares, Domi, and Knies played over 20 minutes. McMann played 18:24 and was excellent. Berube essentially said, “We have six forwards, and I’m riding them to the ground.” Credit to them for digging in.

Obviously, the Leafs are missing what would be three top-nine forwards, including their best player, but whether it’s through players returning or outside help (probably both), they need help. Full marks to the top guys for refusing to quit. Jake McCabe played over 24 minutes and Morgan Rielly over 23. Jani Hakanpaa was steady in his return but will need time.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights with Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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