Toronto @ Washington preview
Capital One Arena
Last Meeting ( Oct 29, 2019 ) Washington 4, Toronto 3
The Washington Capitals will be out to rebound from a 2-1 loss to the lowly Philadelphia Flyers when they open a three-game homestand Monday night against the high-scoring Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Capitals have dropped two straight and three of their past five overall. They are 3-4-0 since the NHL All-Star break.
They will be facing a Toronto team that can score goals but sometimes has trouble preventing them, as indicated by a 10-7 victory over the host Detroit Red Wings Saturday night.
Mitchell Marner led the way with four goals and two assists for a career-best six-point game. It was his first NHL hat trick. His line had 15 points, with one goal and four assists from Michael Bunting and one goal and three assists from Auston Matthews.
Meanwhile, the Capitals are trying to right themselves. They fell behind 2-0 at Philadelphia in the first period and never recovered.
"We have not been good enough," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "That is the bottom line. We are capable of playing better. We are capable of playing better in that first period (Saturday), and we didn't. That has to be corrected."
The Capitals are 5-7-0 in their past 12 games.
"We've got to start finding our game," Capitals left winger Carl Hagelin said. "We've got to go on a run where we play well game in, game out. We can't have one good game, one average game, one bad game, one good game. We've got to find that consistency. If we do that, we'll be fine. But it's time to find it."
The Maple Leafs, who are 4-4-1 in their past nine outings, have won two in a row.
The game in Detroit had its concerns, however. The Maple Leafs took a 7-2 lead into the third period and gave up four straight goals before Ilya Mikheyev scored to give them an 8-6 lead. Detroit cut the lead to 8-7 before Toronto put the game away.
Goaltender Jack Campbell gave up three goals on seven shots in the third period before Petr Mrazek replaced him.
Campbell, who has not been as consistent as he was earlier in the season, allowed five goals on 25 shots on Saturday.
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe chose to put a positive spin on the game.
"I thought we played an excellent game," Keefe said. "Let's not let the craziness of the third period take away from the fact that we played an excellent game, even within the third period, but then all that nonsense. The way Mikheyev responded on his goal, that line scored us a huge goal there."
Marner was pleased the club didn't let the lead get away.
"Wild game completely," Marner said. "Obviously, not how we wanted to be in that third but just good on the guys for sticking with it, believing in that process and getting it done."
Matthews saw how the fans on Detroit responded to the uprising.
"You could feel the energy in the crowd turn on a little bit," Matthews said. "And when you score like that, shift after shift, obviously they got the fans into it, they get belief now on their side and all of a sudden it's a hockey game."
In Bunting's eyes, the end result was the important thing.
"I thought we responded great and I thought we didn't panic and we got the win so that's all that matters," Bunting said. "A win is a win and looking forward to Monday."
--Field Level Media