One’s a fluke, two’s a streak. The Maple Leafs will need to get the job done without William Nylander (illness) this evening in Washington against the surging Capitals (5:00 p.m. EST, TSN4).
Game Day Quotes
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery on what he’s seen from a struggling Leafs team this season:
It is hard to evaluate based on the injuries, right? They’ve missed Auston, Matty Knies, and Brandon Carlo, for that matter. Stolarz.
With those guys coming back, especially Matty and Knies, those are big-time players. It almost gives them a full other line that you have to be extremely aware of, that can do a bunch of damage, and is a top line in the league.
Carbery on the Capitals winning five of their last six with Alex Ovechkin averaging a goal per game over that stretch:
I don’t think it is a coincidence that we are winning games and he’s scoring at a high clip. If you look back at the beginning of last year, he was red-hot out of the gate, and so was our team. There is some correlation there when he is getting hot like this and pucks are going for him. It gives our group a lot of confidence that we are going to score tonight and get three or four.
In the middle stretch, we were getting one or two a night, and we were shut out a few times. Now, it feels like O is getting one for sure at least, and the rest of us can chip in with two or three or four. That is the way it is going.
It gives our group a lot of confidence when he is playing at the level and finishing at the level he is right now.
Craig Berube on the positives to build off of from Wednesday’s win in Columbus:
The patience of our game in the first two periods was really good. We have to manage the puck here and keep doing a good job with our defense on that side of things. Our forecheck was really good in that game, but we didn’t do enough with the puck. We need to do more tonight with the puck on our forecheck in the offensive zone.
Berube on the challenge presented by the Capitals:
Big team. They have some good size and a very active defense. They’re really up in the play a lot. They can make plays. They’re a very good rush team.
Berube on his team’s 14-for-15 run on the penalty kill:
We’re doing a good job with our structure, more than anything, and the goalie is making saves for sure — that is a big part of the penalty kill. I think we are starting to pressure a lot more than we have been and are being a bit more aggressive about killing plays.
The penalty kill is about the fundamentals and the structure of things, and then when you get an opportunity to be aggressive, it’s about making sure you get those stops, those kills, and those clears. Right now, we are doing a good job of that.
Maple Leafs (10-10-3) vs. Capitals (13-9-2): Head-to-Head Stats
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies – #34 Auston Matthews – #89 Nick Robertson
#53 Easton Cowan – #91 John Tavares – #74 Bobby McMann
#81 Dakota Joshua – #55 Nicolas Roy – #63 Matias Maccelli
#18 Steven Lorentz – #24 Scott Laughton – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
#44 Morgan Rielly – #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
#2 Simon Benoit – #22 Jake McCabe
#36 Dakota Mermis – #28 Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#35 Dennis Hildeby
Extras: Max Domi, Philippe Myers
Injured/Out: William Nylander (illness), Brandon Carlo (IR), Anthony Stolarz (IR), Chris Tanev (LTIR)
Washington Capitals Projected Lines
Forwards
#8 Alex Ovechkin – #17 Dylan Strome – #72 Anthony Beauvillier
#21 Aliaksei Protas – #34 Justin Sourdif – #43 Tom Wilson
#22 Brandon Duhame – #24 Connor McMichael – #9 Ryan Leonard
#15 Sonny Milano – #29 Hendrix Lapierre – #53 Ethen Frank
Defensemen
#42 Martin Fehervary – #74 John Carlson
#6 Jakob Chychrun – #3 Matt Roy
#38 Rasmus Sandin – #57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Starter: #48 Logan Thompson
#79 Charlie Lindgren
Injured/Out: Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nic Dowd
