Dec. 18 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Toronto Maple Leafs (15-12-5)
Washington Capitals (18-11-4)
Back in the District after a fruitless two-game road trip, the Caps open a quick two-game homestand against a pair of Atlantic Division foes on Thursday night in the District when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time in a span of four home games. The Caps prevailed over the Leafs here late last month, taking a 4-2 decision on Nov. 28, a Black Friday matinee.
Washington was outscored by a combined 10-1 in a listless road trip in which the only goal it scored came on a two-man advantage, late in the third period of Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg. Jakob Chychrun’s power-play goal enabled the Caps to avoid the ignominy of a shutout, a fate that awaited them three nights later in Minnesota.
On Tuesday night against the Wild, Washington fell behind 1-0 in the third minute of the first period, and that was all the offense Minnesota netminder Filip Gustavsson needed to notch his third shutout – and the Wild’s seventh – of the season. Minnesota added a power-play goal midway through the second period, and a trio of tallies – including a shorthanded goal – in the third.
Over the last month, the Caps have played a lot of excellent hockey. They have picked up points in 13 of 16 games (10-3-3) since Nov. 15, but they’ve also lost three straight (0-2-1) and four of their last five (1-2-2) games. Most worrisome of late has been their offense, which has largely dried up at 5-on-5.
The Caps didn’t score a 5-on-5 goal during their two-game trip, and they’ve managed only six of them in their last five games. Only Ottawa and Chicago (five each) have fewer goals at 5-on-5 across that same span.
Typically, when a team is nearing the end of a hot streak, the signs begin to show a bit before the Ws begin to turn to Ls, and the Caps did pick up points in the first three of their last five games (1-0-2).
“I just feel like there's a couple of things that have started to slip with our group,” said Caps coach Spencer Carbery a day before Tuesday’s game in Minnesota. “Like the checking part, a little bit. There are some unique scenarios that we could do a better job, whether it's giving up a rush or an odd man rush or a breakaway. There are definitely certain scenarios – and those are more video/film fixes and talking to individual players – but I've just felt like our offensive game, our game with the puck, has slipped a little bit.
“And you see it in our underlying numbers, I see it in the film; just we're not quite as crisp with the puck and as predictable to one another. There's a lot of stuff. I'm not going to go into every single detail, but that's sort of what I'm paying attention to right now, and I feel like we need to do a better job of that.”
Washington has gone four straight games without scoring more than two goals, something it hadn’t done at any point all of last season. The last time the Caps went as many as four straight games without netting more than two goals was an eight-game stretch from March 28-April 11, 2024, a protracted scoring slump that put their late season push for a playoff spot in peril.
The Caps went 1-5-2 during that eight-game stretch, which fell one game shy of the dubious franchise record, achieved on four different occasions, most recently from Oct. 13-Nov. 1, 2003 when they went 1-7-1. That early season slide ultimately sparked a massive fire sale that resulted in Washington winning the 2004 draft lottery, and the right to draft Alex Ovechkin with the first overall choice in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.
In Tuesday’s loss, the Caps gave Carbery the low event first period he was hoping to see, notwithstanding the Wild scoring on its first shot of the game, the only goal of the period. And, as it turned out, the only goal Gustavsson would need. Washington was never able to get its offense on track, to make a succession of two or three plays – whether off the rush or in zone – that could lead to a high danger opportunity, or to get out of its own end cleanly and efficiently enough to foster offense at the other end of the rink.
“It felt like they were winning every 50/50 [puck],” begins Caps blueliner Trevor van Riemsdyk. It felt like they were winning those small, little plays to get themselves out of trouble, and we couldn’t piece it together and get out with any momentum and any speed. And then you just end up punting it, and they come right back at you.
“We just didn’t have that connection tonight, which is disappointing. After a subpar last game [in Winnipeg], to follow it up with this one is no good.”
The Caps have been diligent at avoiding lengthy losing spells in the Carbery era, and they’ll be looking to summon that trait on Thursday against Toronto.
Since the Caps last saw the Leafs in late November, Toronto has heated up, collecting at least a point in seven of its last eight games (5-1-2). Most recently, the Leafs finished a five-game homestand with a flourish, overcoming the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in the homestand finale on Tuesday night.
After spotting the Hawks a 2-0 first-period lead, Toronto struck for three goals in a span of seven minutes on the third period, sandwiching a pair of 5-on-5 goals around an Auston Matthews power-play marker.
Although they’re five points behind Washington entering Thursday’s game, the Leafs and the Caps are both among 14 Eastern conference clubs separated by a total of nine points in between the top (Carolina, 44 points) and the bottom (Columbus, 32 points) of the heap.
