Toronto opened the scoring early in the first period when
Daniel Winnik seemed to catch goalie Braden Holtby looking for anything other
than a shot off Winnik’s stick. As
Winnik entered the Caps’ zone down the right side, it looked as if Holtby was
leaning a bit in expectation of Winnik making a pass. Instead, Winnik ripped a
wrist shot over Holtby’s left shoulder on the near side, and it was 1-0, Leafs.
That goal held up into the second period, but not long after
the middle frame started, Alex Ovechkin tied it on a power play. The Caps tried to run a set play with Nicklas
Backstrom moving the puck down to Evgeny Kuznetsov to the left of goalie James
Reimer. From there, the idea was for
Kuznetsov to make a quick pass through the crease to Ovechkin pinching down the
left side. Kuznetsov’s passed was
muffled in front, and instead of the puck ending up on Ovechkin’s forehand, it
deflected off to his backhand. He has
the presence and skill to shift that way and flip a backhand behind Reimer at
the 4:51 mark of the period.
The teams were locked up well into the third period when
Nazem Kadri goaded Tom Wilson into taking an extra minor penalty on top of
coincidental minor penalties for roughing.
Toronto scored on the ensuing power play, Jame van Riemsdyk tucking in a rebound off the
post past Holtby at the 9:27 mark.
The Caps appeared to have tied the game with less than three
minutes left in regulation when Alex Ovechkin flipped a no-look backhand from
the top of the crease past Reimer.
However, Toronto head coach Mike Babcock exercised his unalienable right
to challenge the score, based on his opinion that Justin Williams denied Reimer
the opportunity to stop the puck when he brushed past (then was pushed into
Reimer by Byron Froese). After much
tablet-gazing, the challenge was upheld, the goal was disallowed, and Caps fans
went through the Webster’s Dictionary of Vulgar Phrases and Toasts for Any Occasion.
All of that set up a wild finish to regulation. It was a play on which every bounce went
right for the home team. With Holtby
pulled for an extra attacker, the play started with a centering pass that
deflected off of Alex Ovechkin’s stick as he was tied up in front of the Leafs’
net. John Carlson chased down the loose
puck at the Toronto blue line. He moved
it down the wall to T.J. Oshie, who forwarded it down to Justin Williams low in
the corner to Reimer’s right. Williams,
a right-handed shot had a passing lane to the front of the net, and he fired as
the clocked ticked toward 0:00. The puck
clicked off Ovechkin’s stick once more, but floated up and through the paint to
the far side of the net, when Nicklas Backstrom was waiting all alone. The puck hit Backstrom in the chest, fell to
his feet, and he managed to just get the blade on the bottom half of the puck,
turned sideways in the air, before it bounced a second time. The puck seemed to float in slow motion
toward the Toronto net, slowly enough that Reimer managed to get his upper arm
on the puck. It was enough to slow
further, but not to stop its forward momentum, and the puck settled onto the
ice over the Toronto goal line with 0.8 seconds left in regulation.
The overtime had its moments, both goalies turning aside
decent chances, but no further scoring ensued.
In the Gimmick, the teams went through their first three shooters
without a goal being scored. That
brought it down to Ovechkin in round four, and he converted by deking Reimer to
the ice, patiently pulling the puck back and roofing it over the sprawled
goalie. At the other end, Braden Holtby
got enough of his right pad on a Nazem Kadri attempt to clinch what ended up
being a surprisingly competitive game that ended with the Caps’ tenth win of
the season, 3-2.
Other stuff…
-- This version of the coach’s challenge has to go. The process is utterly lacking in
consistency, and it uses inferior technology.
Every referee brings a different set of eyes and a different reading of
the rule in evaluating a coach’s challenge.
And really, looking at the replay on a tablet? These make for decisions that are
inconsistent and challenge credibility on a case-by-case basis. The scorecard after this call was 26
challenges league-wide, 18 upheld, now eight overturned.
-- What do you call it, the Alex Ovechkin Hat Trick? Goal, disallowed goal, game winning trick
shot goal.
-- When the Leafs scored first, it was just the third time
in 13 games they did so. When they took
their 1-0 lead to the first intermission, it was just the second time they led
after one period this season.
-- It didn’t count, but it sure was a spiffy goal, wasn’t
it?
-- Correct me if I’m wrong, readers, but that was the third time
this season a goal was subjected to challenge in a Caps game. They had a goal of their own disallowed
against San Jose, and they had a Columbus goal upheld earlier this season (edit: The Caps have been involved in four goaltender challenges to date -- the three described above, all ruled against the Caps, and one against Florida in which a Caps goal was upheld. The Caps are 1-3 in favorable results so far).
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had no shots on goal in this
contest. Since his seven-shot,
three-goal game against Edmonton on October 23rd, he has eight shots
on goal over his last six games (two goals).
One of those things players work through.
-- Justin Williams was the only Capital to finish below 50
percent on draws in this game. He was
0-for-1. The team overall was 34-for-56
(60.7 percent).
-- Tom Wilson...seven hits, six penalty minutes, no shots on
goal. Still waiting on a spark out of
his offensive game. And that last extra
minor penalty was one he really didn’t need to take (Barry Trotz seemed to
think that way…Wilson didn’t see the ice again).
One had the feeling that he’s looking to get a fight out of his system
just to have it and move on.
-- We understand Michael Latta not having a shot attempt; it’s
what he does (he has no shots on goal in three of the five games in which he
played this season). But Andre
Burakovsky? He was getting a fair amount
of second line minutes in this game. He
is now six straight games without a point after starting the season 2-3-5 in
his first seven games.
-- Braden Holtby finished the game having allowed two or
fewer goals in six straight home games after allowing three goals in each of
his first two games on Verizon Center ice.
In his last six home games he is 5-1-0, 1.33, .948.
In the end…
The Caps looked as if this was a game they were destined to
lose. To their credit, the Maple Leafs
played a very good road game given that they played the previous night (losing
in overtime to Detroit) and with a talent deficit relative to the Caps. They were particularly effective stifling the
Caps’ ability to set anything up on their power play, despite allowing the
Ovechkin goal on a man advantage for the Caps.
Washington managed only five shots in more than nine minutes of power
play time, including 61 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time.
Now it’s off on a two-game road trip with the Red Wings and
the Flyers on the schedule. Neither is
having a swell time of it lately, but both pose challenges for the Caps, who
certainly did not bring their “A” game to the rink against the Maple
Leafs. But this isn’t a beauty contest,
and two points is two points.
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