"Until we change the narrative, that's going to be the question", defenceman Matt Niskanen told the Washington Post.
The Maple Leafs were hosting their first playoff game in nearly four years and coming off an exciting double-overtime win in Game 2.
Two turning points in the game, if you will: Nazem Kadri twice throwing himself into Capitals defenceman Brooks Orpik in the first period with the Leafs down 2-0, giving Toronto momentum that helped result in Auston Matthews' first National Hockey League playoff goal; and the Leafs' ability in the second period to kill off a two-minute, two-man Caps advantage.
"A couple years ago I got booed off the ice at the end of a game in my hometown, so we've crossed that one off the list", Wilson said last week.
Fast forward 13 years to Saturday, and Kapanen's son, Kasperi, scored twice in Game 2, including the victor in the second overtime to send the series across the Canadian border tied at 1.
After the game, Capitals Coach Barry Trotz took a seat behind a microphone and rattled off all of the chances his players had in the game that they didn't convert. But with two of their best penalty killers in the box, the Leafs' defence stood tall and killed the full too minutes and almost scored when Mitch Marner, who was serving the penalty for Martin, charged out of the box and could have had a breakaway, but Holtby gambled, raced Marner to the puck and beat him to the blueline, clearing the puck.
Yeah, yeah, Auston Matthews got his first playoff goal. "We deserved to win and I'm just really happy about the outcome".
From the first drop of the postseason puck, this has been Washington's series to lose.
Then came an opening for Alex Ovechkin to step into his second of the series, a full bore drive with no one picking him up.
Monday, however, gave us some deja vu that likely has the entire area of Washington on edge. We have a lot of hockey left and they're a great team.
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The top seeds appeared to be restoring order in the series when they raced out to an early lead, but the hometown boys, backed up by 19 000 screaming fans at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, clawed their way back to win 4-3 in overtime for the second game in a row. While the Presidents' Trophy-winning Caps have played 157 minutes of hockey in deciding exactly nothing over their first two games against Toronto, the Penguins - their absolute nemesis - have performed in a very business-like manner in beating the Blue Jackets by a combined score of 7-2.
Caps goal: Alex Ovechkin from Nicklas Backstrom and T.j. Washington fell behind in each of the first two games and will try to reverse that trend moving forward.
Game 4 is Wednesday night. There has been no confirmation regarding surgery for Polak from the club, but Matthews mentioned it.
Each of these games is going beyond the 60 minutes of regulation and the time is piling up; TJ Oshie, Marcus Johansson and Backstrom are all top-ten in minutes per game among forwards. We've just got to play with a little more detail.
For a hockey-crazed city with a teenage-type crush on its young team, a night of tired legs and bleary eyes could very well have resulted in a dreary Easter Sunday in the Big Smoke.
Zaitsev, a 25-year-old Russian rookie, had 36 points (four goals, 32 assists) and 38 penalty minutes over 82 regular-season games.
"Obviously it's tough, but it was fun", Ovechkin said "It's a fun moment". "We had lots of energy tonight, let's just say that. One goal and the game is over". Instead of folding like the young team could have, the Maple Leafs were overwhelming in their pushback to take the game to overtime.
"That has been the feeling the whole time", defenceman Morgan Rielly said after the Leafs beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime on Monday night.
Now everyone else realizes that, too. "It's pretty apparent by how he sends his guys out on D-zone faceoffs and O-zone faceoffs who he wants to play where". "There's no easy rounds". If Zaitsev can't go because of his upper-body injury, Alexey Marchenko would step into the lineup. That he's not Sidney Crosby or Jonathan Toews or even Justin Williams. Marner has points in all five career games against Washington.
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