
Last night, the Leafs had more difficulty than expected against a Canadiens team that was able to exploit the Toronto defense in transition. All rights reserved.After a disappointing effort on opening night in Montreal, Sheldon Keefe will return with the same lineup as the Maple Leafs look to rebound in their home opener against the Washington Capitals (7:30 p.m. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information / Your California Privacy Rights are applicable to you. ^ Back to Top ^ © 2023 ESPN Internet Ventures. Maple Leafs: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night in the second half of a back-to-back.Ĭapitals: Travel to play Detroit on Friday in their first visit to new Little Caesars Arena.įollow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at Brown swapped places with Mitch Marner, who Babcock complimented for playing well on the fourth line with Martin and Dominic Moore. Graovac was filling in for C Lars Eller, who missed the game with an illness. Coach Barry Trotz said Graovac is "going to miss a little bit of time here.". Washington C Tyler Graovac left in the first period with an upper-body injury after taking successive hits from Toronto's Matt Martin. We've got a long way left to go, but those points do feel good." "To get these ones and to get a good feeling in our room and get rolling a little bit is a great feeling. "When it's crunch time and you're getting close to the end of the year like we were last year, we were right in the mix, you look back on these kind of close games and you think about the value that's in these points," Rielly said. But a young team that lost in six games to the Capitals in last year's playoffs will take victories in tight games however they can get them. You're not going to win if you don't score."Īuston Matthews and the Maple Leafs didn't score at their NHL-leading pace, something Babcock would like to fix moving forward. "We gave up a lot of chances - too many from what we're used to," Carlson said. Carlson thought the team effort was better, but the results simply weren't there.

7 with an upper-body injury, the Capitals couldn't muster the kind of offensive firepower they've been known for in previous seasons.

"We have to work harder away from the puck."įorcing defenseman John Carlson to play 27:33 with Niskanen out until at least Nov. "It's pretty hard to play without puck right now," Kuznetsov said. Their defense was better than in an 8-2 loss at Philadelphia on Saturday, but the power play went 0 for 3 and Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Washington's top stars couldn't cash in on limited opportunities. The Capitals leaned on Holtby to make a handful of his 28 saves in the first few minutes as the Maple Leafs dominated. "It was great to see him get to the net and be rewarded." "I liked that Brownie worked hard, he was good on the penalty kill and he got to the net when they got the puck there," coach Mike Babcock said. I think it's fun for us to come down here and get a little bit of revenge."īrown moved up to the third line alongside James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak and scored when he corralled the rebound of Morgan Rielly's point shot and beat Holtby. "You want to kind of measure yourself a little bit, especially since they beat us last year in the playoffs. "These are the big games, the good teams you get up for," Andersen said. Nazem Kadri added an empty-netter with 22 seconds left to seal the victory. That helps you win night in, night out."įrederik Andersen stopped all 30 shots he faced as the Maple Leafs shut out the Capitals on the road for the first time in 73 regular-season meetings.
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We feel like we're getting better defensively and I think we've got a lot of options that can score goals. "We're really excited about what we have. "We feel good about our team," said Brown, who poked a rebound past Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby with 14:07 left for his second goal of the season. Toronto, which handed Washington its second consecutive loss since losing top defenseman Matt Niskanen to injury, has won five of its first six games.
#Maple leafs vs capitals series#
WASHINGTON - Connor Brown made the most of his move up the lineup to keep the Toronto Maple Leafs' hot start rolling.īrown scored the game-winning goal in the third period as the Maple Leafs beat the Washington Capitals 2-0 Tuesday night in a rematch of their first-round playoff series last spring. NHL, Washington Capitals, Toronto Maple Leafs Brown scores, Andersen stops 30 shots as Caps beat Leafs
