The Washington Capitals don’t know how to lose without getting blown out, and on Thursday night the Toronto Maple Leafs blew them out.
Mark Giordano was first to score, with a bit too much space to shoot for my liking. Eighteen seconds into the second period, Tyler Bertuzzi made it 2-0 by banking the puck off Lindgren from down low. Nic Dowd got the Caps on the board by tipping Nick Jensen’s shot, but Connor Dewar stuffed the Caps back in their two-goal hole with a spin-to-win.
Early in the third, the Leafs extended their lead with a rebound on a rush attack, finished off by Bobby McMann. Tyler Bertuzzi got his second of the night by chasing down a chipped puck and beating Lindgren to the far post. That was enough. That was a lot.
Caps lose.
I don’t want to embed the reverse “Bailamos” anymore. If the Caps lose big, we’re gonna embed weirder and weirder alternate versions of “Bailamos” instead.
- Not Charlie Lindgren‘s night. I have been doing this too long to still tolerate that tedious “he’s gonna want that one back” schtick on every goal in every game. Lindgren had some good saves, but it just wasn’t his night.
- Washington’s team defense was bad too though. I didn’t count odd-man rushes for Toronto, but if I did I would have lost count anyway. The Leafs had nine high-danger chances in the second period to the Caps’ two.
- Alex Ovechkin was physical early, wrecking Jake McCabe in the opening minutes with a heavy hit shoulder to chest. Ovechkin did more of the same to Giordano a few minutes later and got socked in the face for it, drawing a power play.
OH MY WORD WHAT A HIT FROM OVI pic.twitter.com/dNAXs0maXK
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 28, 2024
- Trevor van Riemsdyk was at the center of a lot of action. The Giordano goal followed a block by TVR that bounced in Toronto’s favor. A poor defensive-zone turnover gave the Leafs a scoring chance later in the first. Max Domi almost scored in the second period after another turnover. He was on the ice for Dowd’s goal, but he also helped along Bertuzzi on his dump-and-chase goal.
- Consulting the Alterra Corporation out-of-town scoreboard, Washington’s loss shouldn’t hurt too bad. The Flyers were down to the Canadiens, and the Red Wings were getting pummeled by the Hurricanes at last check. Speaking of, check out your boy:
Kuzy did him dirty with that pass pic.twitter.com/KkdCCG9Xq3
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) March 29, 2024
- Nick Jensen doesn’t get a lot of shoutouts lately, but he had a couple real good looks in the first period and it was his shot Dowd tipped in the second.
- Jensen and Martin Fehervary got a lot of shifts against Auston Matthews, and they did fine with it, but it didn’t help Fehervary from being a minus-3 on the night.
- The Caps switched up their lines quite a bit, with even Hendrix Lapierre centering the Ovi line for a bit, but nothing clicked. Dowd in particular got shellacked, his brilliant goal excepted.
v v serious face for big big game #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/blKjoGiDgt
— RMNB (@rmnb) March 28, 2024
The Caps had been riding some kismetic percentages to wins lately, and it couldn’t last forever. At least in true Caps fashion, once they realized they were going to lose, they said, “screw it, let’s get blown the hell out again.” And they did. Called their shot.
Back home for Boston on Saturday. I believe that’ll be the last blue-jersey game of the season, for whatever that’s worth.
