An unfortunate bit of miscommunication led to the game-winning goal, but the Washington Capitals’ problems last night were much bigger than that.
A day removed from one of their most complete performances of the season, the Caps failed to recapture that form in a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“I just thought we got outworked tonight,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “In a game where we could not get outworked, we got outworked and it is unacceptable.”
Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist for the Caps in front of a sold-out Verizon Center crowd, but the loss — coupled with Carolina’s 5-1 win against Tampa Bay — leaves Washington five points from the Southeast Division lead with 16 games to play.
Toronto tried unsuccessfully to break up the team at the trade deadline — largely because five key players did not want to waive no-trade clauses in order to leave. Captain Mats Sundin, the biggest trading chip of the quintet, had a goal and two assists to help the Leafs continue an improbable rush back into playoff contention.
Thanks to a 6-1-1 tear, the Leafs have risen from the depths of the Eastern Conference to catch the Caps with 68 points — five points behind Philadelphia for eighth place and the final postseason berth.
“It just makes it harder for us down the stretch here,” defenseman Mike Green said. “The biggest thing is we can’t get too low here.”
Toronto’s Alex Steen scored the winner on a bit of a fluke play. Caps goaltender Olie Kolzig wanted to cover up the puck as it trickled toward him, but Green knocked it behind the cage.
Mats Sundin retrieved the puck and tried to stuff it, but he lost control and it went to Steen, who was breaking toward the net and one-timed it past the unsettled goalie for a 3-1 lead 5:42 into the final period.
“My eyes were totally focused on the puck,” Kolzig said. “I was just going to freeze it, but as I was going down Green said to leave it and he took it and fell and it’s just an unfortunate break.”
Viktor Kozlov cut the lead to one midway through the final period with his second goal in as many nights when he put home a rebound of Ovechkin’s stuff attempt. Tomas Fleischmann had a pair of chances in the final moments but fanned on both.
A bigger cause for concern is the schizophrenic nature of the work on the power play. With new addition Sergei Fedorov added to the mix, the team’s extra-man unit played well Friday night against the Devils and generated several great chances during the Caps’ first opportunity against the Leafs.
After that it unraveled, barely keeping the puck in the offensive zone during the next four chances. The best chance came on a 22-second 5-on-3, but Alexander Semin whiffed on a cross-ice one-timer.
“In the second through the fifth [power plays] we didn’t have the puck and we only had one guy going after it,” Boudreau said. “Everybody seemed to want to get the goal rather than do the dirty work to get the puck and do what we’re supposed to do. We got what we asked for.”
Ovechkin gave the Caps a 1-0 lead 15:47 into the opening period. He ripped a wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle past Toronto goalie Vesa Toskala. The goal ended a seven-game drought for Ovechkin, the longest of his career.
Nik Antropov tipped a shot from Sundin over Kolzig’s left shoulder 66 seconds into the second period on the power play to tie the game 1-1.
Defenseman Bryan McCabe — another of the five who blocked the trade — left Sundin a drop pass at the blue line along the boards, and he put a shot over Kolzig’s shoulder from the top of the right faceoff circle. The shot deflected off defenseman Shaone Morrisonn’s stick on the way in.
“It went to the 10th floor instead of the first floor pretty quick,” Kolzig said. “I don’t know if we matched their desire in the first couple of periods.”
Added Ovechkin: “This is lesson for us. We know how we have to play. We started to change how we play in the second period…. We have to change it [back].”
Notes — Matt Cooke made his debut with the Caps after the team acquired him for Matt Pettinger on Tuesday. …
Forwards Eric Fehr and Quintin Laing were healthy scratches along with defenseman John Erskine and goaltender Brent Johnson.
Caps report
Last night at Verizon Center
QUOTABLE
“Yeah, if he was sent down I would have thought he’d get 20 for Hershey. You know what, I think the sky is the limit for him and if you don’t set goals that at the time seem unreachable, you’ll never be as good as you can be.”
— Caps coach Bruce Boudreau on defenseman Mike Green, who told reporters Friday night that he had set 20 goals as a benchmark for this season
BY THE NUMBERS
7-1-2 Washington’s record in the second of back-to-back games since Boudreau became coach
3 Consecutive winning months for the Caps (December, January and February) for the first time since January-March 2000.
— Corey Masisak
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