With the Capitals trying to get into beast mode early after starting slow and almost losing the series opener in OT to underdog Toronto, they came into Game 2 intending to bring out the heavy equipment at home, being physical and grinding the smaller Leafs into the ice.
"He was by far our best player tonight", said Toronto defenseman Jake Gardiner, who played a game-high 40:42.
I know a penalty stemmed from this play, but I'm nearly positive it was taken by Connor Carrick.
The Gardiner and Polak pairing carried 55+% of the possession in their 9-10 5v5 minutes against the Ovechkin and Backstrom line, with Ovechkin finishing at minus-one with just one shot on goal at the end of the night.Morgan Rielly drew praise after the game from his head coach for his "best game of the year"; his pairing alongside Matt Hunwick drew the Kuznetsov matchup most often but saw a fair bit of Ovechkin's unit as well. "We know what we have to do to prepare for the next game and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that we're ready". It's OK. Nobody says we're going win 4-0 and move forward. "We're just going to play game by game, shift by shift, and going to do our best". "You can't ask for anything more".
Back-to-back penalties on Toronto's Brian Boyle and Zach Hyman gave Washington a 90-second, five-on-three advantage midway through the first. Washington caught a break to score its opening goal in the first period, when a broken stick on Kevin Shattenkirk's shot attempt ultimately resulted in the first of Justin Williams' two goals. In the 21 games before the change was made Toronto was astoundingly outscored 34-14 at even-strength with Rielly on the ice - the final straw a 7-2 loss to Florida in mid-March. Andersen made 41 saves but lost track of the puck in front of him on Williams' second goal and should have stopped Wilson's shot. There were points Saturday night when hockey extending into Easter Sunday morning seemed probable, when the most significant problem afoot was the fact that Metro was closing at midnight, and Verizon Center went from some version of insane to comparatively subdued. "I think we had a lot of respect for them coming in". "We want to be here for real and play as good as we can".
The back-to-back overtimes on the road were the first for the Leafs in a series since splitting at Boston Garden in 1933.
Two days of severe storms, Sunday upgraded to Slight risk for OKC
Looking a little farther down the line, we will be watching next Friday closely for the possibility of strong to severe storms. High pressure to the east is making for a breezy afternoon and this southerly flow will continue tonight.
"He didn't go on the ice today", Babcock said at Friday's optional practice.
That will be hard from an own zone perspective without Polak, another injury on defence they can ill afford. That lack of depth, with Nikita Zaitsev still sidelined by a suspected concussion, could wear away at this team. But it was how Polak fell that appeared to cause the damage, his right leg crumpling awkwardly under his body. Instead, he made a remarkable play, firing a no-look backhand to the side of the net where Kapanen was alone and waiting.
Ovechkin could have ended it near the end of regulation, or near the end of the first OT, but both teams had great chances all night long. Later, Nazem Kadri goaded Holtby into a slashing call that also could not be converted. They combined for two goals in 94 previous playoff games.
Through the first two days of the playoffs, game-winning goal scorers include the New York Rangers' Tanner Glass, St. Louis Blues' Joel Edmundson and Capitals' Tom Wilson. "As a teammate, as a player, as a coach, it's one of those games that it's as bad as you can be. we have to be way better and bring our best because we haven't seen anywhere near our best". Look at this series and what's going on around the Capitals. Williams answered with one in the first period and one in the second. It started with the fourth line contributing, a Matt Martin feed in front to Kapanen who spun a five-hole backhand past a surprised Holtby. Even the positioning of Boyle and Kapanen is on point. By the thinnest of margins, the goal stood.
Auston Matthews, Toronto's leading regular season sniper, awaits his first National Hockey League playoff point, but not for lack of trying. "If we want to win these games, I think we have to capitalize on the chances we got in the third and early overtime".
Wilson said he played this moment out in his head when he was a kid-when every shot is an overtime victor in the playoffs-although, he admitted, "maybe I was a Leaf at the time, when I was a little guy".
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