The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the season with the second-best odds to win the Stanley Cup at +900 and they have looked anything but an elite team in the league for the month of October. They are 2-3-2 in their last seven games. The Capitals absolutely man handled the Leafs last night. Some people are starting to say this Toronto team is soft and yes, I am one of them. Might as start calling them The Toronto McFlurries. They let Toronto Native Tom Wilson do whatever he wanted to last night without a single repercussion. The only danger the Capitals had of losing this game was all self-inflicted and a result of a tightly called game from the refs which gave the Leafs eight, yes eight powerplay opportunities. The only stat I need to throw out to illustrate just how “lifeless” the Leafs looked last night is that up until 5:40 left in the second period, the Leafs had nine shots on goal total, five of which were on the power play! The crowd even began to boo them as they failed to generate any sort of puck movement power play after power play. Seriously, my beer league hockey team has a better PP than Toronto.
My three takeaways from last night:
1. Shining Stars – The Stars were shining last night indeed. Ovi anchored the Caps with four points, including the overtime winner. Continuing his blistering October Norris campaign, John Carlson had two goals. Dude is on fire! Auston Matthews scored two goals last night putting him at 11 goals on the season. Had it not been for the refs, this could have been a real seesaw game 5on5.
2. Penalties – Wow, were there a lot of penalties last night. The Maple Leafs took seven penalties, including two critical minors in overtime which led to the Ovechkin Goal from his office. Credit Ovi for the backcheck to earn that last PP. The Capitals also took eight penalties, but the Leafs failed to Capitalize going 1 for 8 on the PP through regulation, hence the booing.
3. Ovi Calling out Maple Leafs Pregame – In the hours leading up to the game, Ovi gave an assessment of the Maple Leafs to the Media saying, “the Leafs need to 'figure out if they're playing for themselves or for a Stanley Cup' and if they want to win, they need to play differently”. Bold statement but I don’t think he overstepped. He was just speaking from a similar experience he endured with the Capitals years back. The comment was not meant to shade Toronto. He was asked and he gave an answer. The real takeaway here is Babcock’s response. When Babcock was asked about Ovi’s comments, he responded “Well, I don't know if he's wrong". That’s gotta be tough to basically hear your coach confirm what Ovi is saying. Im not close enough to the Toronto situation to know if players are actually “playing for themselves” but it’s a troubling narrative nonetheless.
STAT ATTACK:
-Ovechkin has scored 41 goals in 50 games against Toronto in his career. That is second only behind Gretzky since the 79-80 season. 24 of those goals have been in Toronto. I bet they love him there.
-With the OT power play winner, Ovechkin added to his All-Time NHL record, 126 road power play goals.
-Ovechkin scored his 668th and 669th career goals last night. This moves him past Luc Robitaille for #12 all-time. Only 225 more to go to catch Gretzky! Too soon? Never.
-With his 23 points to start the season, John Carlson (American Hero) now has the most points ever by a Capitals Defenseman and second most all-time across the NHL in the month of October. As Ovi said, #Johnny4Norris
-The Capitals set a franchise record with 21 points for the month of October.
-The Capitals are 7-1-1 on the road this season. This team always plays better on the road and they have openly admitted they enjoy it. During their Stanley cup run, they set an NHL record for clinching all four series on the road.
Thanks for reading. Go Caps. Go Nats!
By Brian S.
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