The Toronto Maple Leafs began their five-game home stand in impressive fashion with a 6-2 victory over the Washington Capitals at Air Canada Center on Saturday, aided by Tyler Bozak’s pair of goals, a suddenly awakened power-play and perhaps the spirit of former Leafs coach and GM Pat Quinn, who passed away on November 23rd and was honored in a moving video presentation prior to the game.
The number 23 was central to the events of the evening, as it was Toronto’s 23rd game of the season and the jersey number worn by Quinn during his tenure with the Blue and White from 1968 to 1970. After Morgan Rielly’s deflected point shot gave the Leafs the 1-0 lead, Toronto’s power play padded the lead on Cody Franson’s quick snap shot beat Washington backup Justin Peters with 23 seconds remaining in the first.
Jim Carrey will one day star in the movie about tonight's Leafs game #TheNumber23 pic.twitter.com/3eOKedVONs
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 30, 2014Caps coach Barry Trotz yanked Peters and in favor of starter Braden Holtby, but the goaltending change did not have the desired change in momentum for Washington, as Bozak scored his 10th goal of the season just 23 seconds into the middle frame. The Caps finally showed signs of life midway through the middle frame, as Troy Brouwer scored with the man advantage to narrow the lead to 3-1, but Toronto quickly responded as Nazem Kadri combined with David Clarkson for his seventh of the season…….23 seconds after Brouwer’s goal.
Bozak added a third Toronto power play goal later in the second and Joffrey Lupul scored his first goal since returning from a broken hand on Toronto’s 23rd shot to cap the scoring.
“We were fortunate that we played a team that was coming off a back-to-back and we were able to score the first goal.… Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “I thought we played half the game the way we wanted and then we got away from our game, but how do you critique a 6-2 win.…
Jonathan Bernier made 35 saves in his eighth victory this season and has gone 3-1-1 in his five straight starts. Toronto improves to 8-6-0 at ACC with the win.
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Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin will not face any supplementary discipline for his hit on Leafs winger Leo Komarov early in the third period. Komarov was his usual annoying self for most of the night and the two former KHL teammates were seen chirping at each other at the team benches, which could have been interpreted as a pretext to Ovechkin’s hit from behind early in the third period.
The feisty Finn left the Leafs bench and underwent concussion protocol in the locker room following the collision. In spite of feeling fine after the game, Komarov will be further evaluated on Monday and could miss some time as Daniel Winnik did following his concussion in Colorado earlier in the month.
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