The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a harsh 4-0 defeat by the hands of the Washington Capitals on Thursday at Capital One Arena. Following the shutout, head coach Craig Berube didn’t hold back. When asked after the sport what made Washington so difficult tonight, Berube had a one-word answer: “Ourselves” (h/t David Alter of The Hockey News).
Toronto’s power play, which used to strike fear into opponents, couldn’t get anything going, ending 0-for-5. Of their first 33 games this season, the Maple Leafs man advantage sits at just 14.1%, showing a transparent downturn for a unit featuring Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, Matthew Knies, and Morgan Rielly. The road of Matthews, Nylander, and Knies was outshot 7-0 in only over seven minutes at five-on-five. Overall, Toronto controlled just 40% of shot attempts and 38% of expected goals at five-on-five, in response to Natural Stat Trick.
Berube even briefly rotated his top personnel out of power-play situations, giving secondary players like Max Domi, Easton Cowan, Nicholas Roy, and Bobby McMann more ice time. While the second unit was simpler at generating probabilities, the scoring just didn’t come.
Nylander, who has no goals and 4 assists in his last eight contests, was unable to pinpoint a reason for the team’s lack of urgency. Meanwhile, Tavares, who’s managed only one point in his last seven games, stressed that the team isn’t removed from where it desires to be, a degree which will ring hole for fans witnessing consecutive underwhelming performances.
It was the defensemen leading the charge for the Capitals, accountable for three of the 4 goals. Aliaksei Protas opened the scoring at 13:53 of the primary period, assisted by Justin Sourdif. Jakob Chychrun followed with a pair of goals, one in the primary period and one other early within the third, adding to his league-leading defenseman total, now at 14 this season. John Carlson closed out the scoring at 8:57 of the third period, recording a goal together with two assists for Washington. Logan Thompson stopped all 22 shots he faced for his second shutout in 4 games, while Toronto goalie Dennis Hildeby made 23 saves.
With the win, Washington improved to 19-11-4, second within the Metropolitan Division with 42 points, ending a three-game slump ahead of a weekend home-and-home with the Detroit Red Wings.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs now sit at 15-13-5, seventh within the Atlantic Division with 35 points, only 4 back of the ultimate wild-card spot and only one point above the last-place teams within the East. They’ll look to regroup as their three-game road trip continues, facing the Nashville Predators on Saturday and the Dallas Stars on Sunday.