Toronto’s drive to clinch hits detour
BOLTS UP NEXT
• The clinch won’t be a cinch.
In fact, a bit more of that pain that Mike Babcock warned about when he became Toronto’s head coach was absorbed Tuesday night as the Maple Leafs were reminded what slamming into a Stanley Cup contender feels like.
With their first playoff spot in four seasons in the cards if they could get past the Washington Capitals and get help on the out of town scoreboard, Toronto was swamped 4-1. The Leafs’ next chance to punch their post- season ticket comes Thursday, with Tampa Bay in town. But the Bolts need to beat the Leafs in regulation to extend the race into the weekend.
Toronto, which had not lost at home since Feb. 18, was blanked — most notably, their trio of 60- point rookie — until Mitch Marner’s power play goal with 1:08 to play. Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander were celebrated the night before for being the first to reach that mark since the 1980- 81 Quebec Nordiques. Matthews had his five- game goal streak snuffed out against the Caps.
Each club came into the game on an 8-1-1 run, but the vast difference was Washington aiming to wrap up the Presidents’ Trophy and Toronto attempting to just get into the playoffs for the first time in an 82- game season since 2004.
The Caps, who’ve had many trips mapped out to the Cup final that have been stopped cold, have been taking a methodical approach to this campaign to be ready for a two-month grind. That included the trade deadline acquisition of defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk, seen as the last piece of the puzzle and one of Tuesday night’s scorers.
To ro n t o had to get through two periods without checking centre Brian Boyle, who suffered an upper body injury from one of the big hits in the early going.
By the second period, elements that had been going the Leafs’ way in recent days began unravelling, compounded by some of them having tired legs on a back to back preceded by a threegame road trip.
Washington blunted Toronto’s speed, aided by some uncharacteristic Leaf giveaways that almost wound up in the net.
The Caps also clicked on special teams, their second goal a gem of puck control, with Alex Ovechkin and Shattenkirk manoeuvering around to eventually changing power play positions, Shattenkirk with an near empty net goal.
The Leafs were able to tie up the Sabres in their own end and cycle with relative ease the night before, but the Caps refused to be hemmed in. Toronto, its legs showing the effect of playing the night before, had just three shots in the first 20 minutes, though Marner just missed a breakaway pass during a stretch of 4-on-4 play.