Washington wins it on a fluke bounce

First Period

It was... well... it had its moments.

This close to boarding on an old friend:

Cool move number one:

Number two:

Willy style of talking to the ref:

The stick that didn't bark in the night time:

John Carlson, 2 min for having a posterior:

And the only Leafs scoring chance of note:

The Leafs had no meaningful offence for about 12x minutes and then picked it up in the power plays and right before the final horn.

To be fair, the Capitals returned the flatline favour (partly by being on the PK). Neither team was particularly adept at hockey in the first. Scoreless after one. Corsi was 20-11 Washington at five-on-five and they had 60% of the xG.

Second Period

The second was not more interesting. It had goals, and the Leafs ground out a 50% xG instead of 30%, so they were demonstrably better. But it felt like watching a game played in mud.

The Washington goal:

The Nylander miss:

John Tavares jolted everyone alert with this one on a pass from Chris Tanev.

Nick Robertson capped off a terrible period of mistakes, miscues and minor flubs with this routine move that got called because the other guy fell. Just how it is.

After two it was one all. Moneypuck has the all-situations Expected Goals dead even at a tepid 1.6.

Third Period

Nothing like a tie game to make every play lead to a board battle and every pass a bad one. Or so this seemed.

Washington scores on a funky bounce off the ref's skate that Anthony Stolarz can't control.

Big Leafs flurry with Stolarz pulled very, very late in the third period. Tavares avoids a penalty for knocking off Martin Fehervary's helmet and then Fehervary avoids a penalty for rejoining the play before the bucket is back on his head.

Washington with the ENG.

3-1 was the final score.

Toronto with no meaningful offence in the third period (other than with Stolarz pulled). Yes the winning goal was a weird bounce, but the Capitals got that bounce because they were in the offensive zone with control of the puck a very great deal.

Get the puck, keep the puck, shoot the puck a lot. Three things the Leafs couldn't do enough of. Players coming back off injury will help the Leafs, but they aren't using a recipe that cooks up to success right now. Will they with one or two roster changes? We'll find out. Possibly tomorrow when Max Pacioretty and possibly Max Domi are due back vs the Penguins.