Leafs playing with ‘fear’
Capitals 5 Leafs 4 Root of trouble lack of confidence, coach Quinn says Capitals shore up power play and score three times
WASHINGTON— One thing became poignantly clear over the weekend: the Leafs have an evil twin.
Watching them botch things so badly last night after handling the Stanley Cup- champion Lightning Saturday in Toronto was enough to give coaches and players a sharp message about their play so far this season.
“ We’re searching for ourselves,” Leafs captain Mats Sundin said after a wildly inconsistent effort over a definite bottom dweller in the Washington Capitals led to a 5- 4 loss before 12,859 at the MCI Center.
“ We have to be more assertive. Even the other night against Tampa, we didn’t play very well with the lead,” Sundin continued.
“ We have to stay out of the penalty box. . . . I’m not panicking, no one is here. But we have to play better, we have work to do.”
Sundin, who had another brilliant show in setting up a pair of Jeff O’Neill goals in his second game since returning from an eye injury, was really only touching the tips of the Leafs’ problems. They were almost too numerous to count. For starters, there’s that tendency to take too many penalties. Even after a month under the new NHL rules, the Leafs continue to absolutely kill themselves. They took 13 minors last night.
Washington, which had managed one power- play goal in 42 previous opportunities, bagged three against a struggling Leafs penalty-killing unit. And the
supposed weak- sister Capitals scored a shorthanded goal to make matters worse. The rash of penalties was a byproduct of deeper problems with defensive positioning, moving the puck out of their own zone and turning the puck over at mid- ice and in the opposition attack zone to create oddman rushes.
“ We can make all the excuses we want ( penalty calls, playing the night before), but the fact is we didn’t work hard enough,” Leafs coach Pat Quinn said.
“ One phase is we’re not picking up checks, another phase is cleaning up the front of our net . . . and a key phase for us is moving the puck. We get it out of our end and give it up halfway up the ice. That’s a sign of a lack of confidence . . . playing with fear, with the fear of giving it up and some of our guys are playing with fear.” Quinn went on to describe how some of his key players are failing at commitments to certain aspects of the game plan.
His troops certainly underlined that in the first period when they spotted Washington atwo- goal lead. In an about- face over the final five minutes of the period, they tied it up, but then fell behind 3- 2 only 91 seconds into the second period. And so it went, bad decisions, bad play, bad penalties, all piling up. On the other hand, the Leafs were good enough to catch up again. But their bad play far outweighed the good things they accomplished.
Alex Ovechkin scored at 15: 01 of the second and at 6: 07 of the third to put Washington ahead 5- 3.
Kyle Wellwood, who had a goal disallowed in the first period, bagged his third of the season at 12:56 of the third. The Leafs tried desperately to tie it up — they had Sundin on the point and Bryan McCabe down low on a power play at one stage — but the hole they had dug was too deep. McCabe had the other Toronto goal, while Bryan Muir, Matt Pettinger and Brian Willsie also scored for Washington.
“ I think that with the majority of the teams in this league, if you don’t play better than they do, you’re not going to win,” said O’Neill, reflecting on a Capitals team that was supposedly beatable for the Leafs.
“ You may get some lucky breaks here and there, but you can’t win without playing well.”