Leafs Drop Caps, 3-2

For the second time in as many games early in the new NHL season, the Caps found themselves down a goal and with multiple power play opportunities with which to generate a tying tally on Thursday night in Toronto. Twice on opening night in a 5-2 loss to Boston and thrice on Thursday, Washington's extra-man unit was unable to put its stamp on the game in a situation in which it might have helped the team claim at least a point.

Auston Matthews deflected a Mark Giordano point shot up and over Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren from in tight at 6:55 of the third period, snapping a 2-2 tie and lifting the Leafs over the Caps by a 3-2 count. Lindgren made 36 saves and deserved a better fate, but the Caps couldn't convert on any of three power play opportunities in the game's last 12 and a half minutes.
"A lot of it is execution," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the lack of power play success in the early going. "We've got to be better with what we're doing on the ice. We'll go back and continue to work on it, but for me, I think the execution has got to be better."
The early minutes of Thursday's game played out almost precisely as they did on Wednesday night in the Caps' 5-2 home ice loss to Boston. Washington had an early power play for the second time in as many nights, and it failed to score for the second time in as many nights. The Caps then went down a man and yielded a power play goal, this one to Toronto's John Tavares at 6:40 of the first, putting Washington down a goal 78 seconds earlier than they went down a night earlier.
Here's where the Caps flipped the script. Facing former teammate Ilya Samsonov, who was making his Toronto debut, Washington center Nic Dowd beat his former teammate to tie the game at 1-1 at 9:57. Trevor van Riemsdyk and Erik Gustafsson exchanged the puck on the left side, with Gustafsson carrying down low and looking for options. Dowd found a soft spot below the right circle and chipped the defenseman's feed home to knot the score.
Less than four minutes later, the Caps took their first lead of the season. Lars Eller and T.J. Oshie made plays along the wall in neutral ice to send Marcus Johansson into Toronto ice. From the right dot, Johansson put a shot through Samsonov's pads to give the Caps a 2-1 lead, 15 seconds after they won a defensive zone draw.
By the end of the first, Lindgren had faced 21 shots, stopping 20 of them. He robbed William Nylander three times, twice at the post from in tight on the power play and another time on the rush.
Toronto squared the score early in the second period when Alex Kerfoot gained the Washington zone and pulled up at the half wall. Seeing Calle Jarnkrok breaking toward the back post, Kerfoot hit him in stride for a redirect goal at 3:53.
Early in the third, Dowd won a draw in his own end, but the Caps didn't quite execute on the exit attempt, and the puck went into the benches, necessitating another draw five seconds later. This time, Matthews won the face-off. After an exchange at the points, Mark Giordano put a shot toward the net with some air underneath it. Matthews caught the slightest piece of it en route to the cage, it hit Lindgren up high and rolled down his back and in.
"It's frustrating that it ends that way," laments Lindgren. "I think it was Giordano that took that shot, and Matthews barely got a piece of it, just enough to change directions. Then I felt it roll down my back, and it went in the back of the net. It's obviously frustrating, and obviously a good tip. But it was tough for it to end like that."
The last two of Washington's man advantages in the third included some 6-on-4 time with Lindgren on the bench for an extra attacker. The sum total of Washington's 4 minutes and 41 seconds on the power play in the third period was: three shots on net, five misses, three shots blocked, two giveaways and one takeaway credited to the Leafs. All three of the Caps' shots on net came from distance, and none produced a rebound opportunity.
"Execution," affirms Caps captain Alex Ovechkin of the team's power play woes, echoing his coach's thoughts. "First power play, we hit the crossbar. Then in the second period missed a wide open net.
"It's just I think execution and maybe afraid to make a simple play to get one extra shot and find a dirty goal. But we just have to fight through it. Obviously, that's a start we don't want to have, two losses in a row. But it's a wake-up call and we have to get better and play well in the next one."
The next one is Saturday, at home against Montreal. The Caps go into that game with an 0-2 mark to start the season for the first time since the truncated campaign of 2012-13. The Caps started 0-3 that season and were 2-8-1 after 11 games of what was just a 48-game season, but they still rallied to make the playoffs.