The Toronto Maple Leafs have given the Washington Capitals all that they can handle in their first round series, taking the President’s Trophy winner to overtime four times in the first five games, but the 2-1 overtime loss in Game 5 on Friday illustrated flaw with the young Leafs that in a close series could prove to be fatal.
Toronto has been on the losing end of the special teams battle in the series thus far and that was at the root cause of their Game 5 loss, with Justin Williams scoring at 1:04 of overtime.
Washington has scored five goals on the man advantage and done so at critical points, while the Leafs penalty killing has not been able to contain Alex Ovechkin and is second-last among playoff teams at 66.6%.
Williams scored on the power play in the first period of Game 1 to get the Caps back into the game after a pair of early Toronto goals, Washington converted twice in Game 2 and put the Leafs in an early hole in Game 4 on a patented Ovechkin one-timer
On Friday, Nazem Kadri’s controversial hit on Ovechkin provided Washington with their first of three power play opportunities and TJ Oshie opened the scoring.
Toronto tied the game on Auston Matthews third goal of the playoffs, but squandered four power plays in the middle frame and third period that would have given them the lead.
“I didn't think (the power play) tonight was very good at all. We'll have to go back to the drawing board. (The Capitals have) done a good job on that and then obviously, they've got in our head a little bit there because we're not coming with the same kind of pace we normally do on entries.” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “We're going to have to win some faceoffs and some battles and compete in that area because any way you look at it, our special teams have been real good in some ways, but it cost us tonight.”
The Leafs were second in the NHL (23.8%) with the man advantage during the regular season, but have only gone 3-for-17 in the playoffs, in part because the Capitals have started to lay the body on blueliners Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly, who see the most ice time five-on-five and quarterback the first and second units.
The wide-open nature (by playoff standards) of the first four games seemed to more favorable to Toronto and their speed game, but Game 5 was more along the lines of how Barry Trotz wants the game to be played.
If the Leafs are going to win Game 6 at Air Canada Centre on Sunday and extend the series to a seventh and deciding game, they will have to seize on whatever chances they get on the man advantage and force Washington to open things up and be more susceptible to counter-attack.
“We’ve got to win a game at home. We haven't been as good at home, I don't know if it's nerves or trying to do too much, so we've got to be better at home and that's our plan and we look forward to going back to Washington.” Babcock said. “I just think our only opportunity to continue to play is to do that so that has to be our focus. We'll just focus on the process and doing the little things right and everything will look after itself.”
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