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The Good, Bad, & Ugly in Maple Leafs 3-1 Loss to Capitals

Originally posted on NHL Trade Talk | By Stan Smith | Last updated Dec 7, 2024 11:44 AM ET

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a chance to move into a tie for the top spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference when they hosted the first-place Washington Capitals Friday night, but they came out on the losing end of a 3-2 score. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?

The Bad (The Referee’s Skate)

While some bad luck did play a role in the loss, the Maple Leafs did not deserve to win this game. A quick look at the underlying stats tracked by Naturalstattrick.com showed that at 5-on-5, the Capitals had over 60% of the Shots, Scoring Chances, High-Danger Scoring Chances, and Expected Goals in the game. But if not for a bad bounce off the referee’s skate, the outcome of this game could have easily gone in Toronto’s favor.

With the score tied 1-1 halfway through the third period, Auston Matthews attempted to ring the puck around the boards behind the Toronto net. The puck hit the referee’s skate and deflected right into the crease. Anthony Stoltz tried to knock the puck back into the corner but bounced it off Pierre-Luc Dubois’ stick to Connor McMichael. McMichael flipped the puck over a sprawled Stolarz into the net.

That goal gave Washington a 2-1 lead in a game in which goals were scarce.

After a scoreless first period, the Capitals opened the scoring at 1:06 in the second. Conor Timmins got the body on Nic Dowd as they were racing for the puck behind the Toronto goal, knocking Dowd to the ice. Timmins passed the puck up the boards to the left of Stolarz to Fraser Minton. Instead of receiving the pass and controlling the puck, Minton tried to relay it out of the zone past Matt Roy. But, he did not get good wood on it. That gave Roy the opportunity to one day the puck toward the net. At the same time, Dowd regained his feet. Ignored by both defensemen, Dowd got ahead of Stolarz and tipped the puck past Stolarz into the goal.

The Good (Tanev and Tavares)

In a game where it was tough to come up with anything good for the Maple Leafs, they scored their goal with a nice stretch pass by Chris Tanev to John Tavares. A point shot by John Carlson hit Tom Wilson in the skate in front of the Toronto net and went right to Tanev. Tavares had tried to block Carlson’s shot, but his momentum carried him out of the Toronto zone behind the Washington defense.

Tanev spotted Tavares alone and led him with a perfect stretch pass just outside the Capitals blue line. Tavares went in alone on Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren, waited for Lindgren to go down, and then roofed a backhand over him into the net.

The Ugly (The Refereeing)

The refereeing in this game was as ugly as it gets. The referees only called six penalties, but five of them were of the bad to chintzy variety. That involved a phantom high stick and a slash without a slashing motion on Oliver-Ekman Larsson, a play where it looked like Mitch Marner jumped on Tom Wilson and then down, leading to an interference call on Wilson, and a phantom hooking call to Carlson on Nylander. The only legitimate call was a tripping call on Pontus Holmberg.

Then there were the calls the referees didn’t make. Those included Carlson pulling the stick out of Holmberg’s hands, Nylander getting tripped by Dubois, and Martin Fehervary blocking a shot while trying to put his helmet back on his head.

I thought that after the one referee gifted the Capitals the 2-1 lead, he might be looking to make an even-up call to give Toronto a chance to get that goal back. I was wrong. There was no single call on Washington in over 30 minutes of play after the goal.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

The Maple Leafs will not have time to dwell on the loss as they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins on Saturday night. It will be interesting to see if Craig Berube changes the lineup. Max Pacioretty could return for the game in Pittsburgh.

There was a trio of players Berube felt he could not trust on the ice in the third period of the Washington game when the Maple Leafs were down a goal. Nick Robertson did not see the ice in the last ten minutes of the third period. Ryan Reaves only had three shifts in the third period. His third was after the Capitals scored the empty net goal to go up 3-1. Nikita Grebenkin only had two shifts in the third period. One of those was with Reaves after the game was out of reach. While I admire Grebenkin’s enthusiasm, energy level, and colorful quotes, it is becoming obvious he is not ready to become a full-time NHL player.

This article first appeared on NHL Trade Talk and was syndicated with permission.

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