Toronto Maple Leafs @ Washington Capitals
07:00 PM at Capital One Arena
Watch on: SNO, MNMT

The Leafs last game was at home on December 16 against the Chicago Blackhawks, which Toronto won by a score of 3-2 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 15-12-5 for a 0.547 Points %.

The Washington Capitals last played away on December 16 against the Minnesota Wild. The Capitals lost by a score of 5-0 in regulation, and their current league record is 18-11-4 for a 0.606 Points %.

Them

The Leafs last played Washington in the 5pm game on a Friday in November.

I said this in the preview: "In general, [Washington] is easier to score on than they were last year, but you need to defend at five-on-five against them or you're in trouble."

But the buzz was all about would Max Domi be healthy scratched or not. Drama! Excitement! Irrelevant!

What happened was the Leafs scored twice in the second period, flopped over dead and let the Capitals net four straight, and in the process Joe Woll still had an above average Save % on the game. Another key point was that the Capitals played very poorly for the entire first half of the game and were still outplaying the Leafs.

The post-game discussion was "What is this team?" and "What is this team doing that could win games?" and "Which is actually worse, the defending or the offending."

And we're almost a month on and the Capitals have gotten better in the standings, with a Points % more representative of their actual play. They'd been a little unlucky before.

Lines

Last Game (2025-12-16) via Daily Faceoff

Alex Ovechkin - Dylan Strome - Anthony Beauvillier
Aliaksei Protas - Justin Sourdif - Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano - Hendrix Lapierre - Ethen Frank
Brandon Duhaime - Nic Dowd - Connor McMichael

Martin Fehervary - John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun - Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson - confirmed starter
Charlie Lindgren

Us

Max Domi on the fourth line! Who could have ever foreseen this. Around and around and around we go as they try him out as a one-trick pony at 1LW, and give up on him. Who had Nick Robertson as your pick to succeed at adding more tricks?

No other changes than the flip around of the RWs below Nylander.

In good news, the Leafs look to be rotating the goalies as they approach this packed set of games.

Lines

From this morning.

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Nicholas Robertson - John Tavares - Easton Cowan
Dakota Joshua - Nicolas Roy - Bobby McMann
Steven Lorentz - Scott Laughton - Max Domi

Morgan Rielly - Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Jake McCabe - Troy Stecher
Simon Benoit - Henry Thrun

Joe Woll
Dennis Hildeby - starter

The Game

Don't flop over dead.

I don't know what else to say about this team. What's the pump up line? Play a whole game like you did that five minutes of the last game? Wasn't that last year's meme?

At least it's a road game, so you won't get booed.

Game Coverage