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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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TORONTO – It didn’t take long for the Toronto Maple Leafs to find themselves in familiar territory on Wednesday night.

Facing the Washington Capitals in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarter-finals, Toronto needed a better start than they’d had two days prior, when they let the Capitals jump out to an early 2-0 lead. The Maple Leafs blamed the nervous energy of playing in their own building for that snafu, and they came back to win in overtime, but the Buds had no excuse when the same scenario unfolded again.

Washington was up by two 4:34 into Game 4, and they dominated the first 40 minutes of play before winning 5-4. Toronto could take some solace in the fact they didn’t make it easy on the Capitals, but their biggest push came when it was too little, too late. The series is now tied 2-2.

“I thought today was the first time we weren’t scared enough of them,” said Mike Babcock. “And it looked like it because our competition level wasn’t good enough. You can come back once in a while like we did [in Game 3], but you can’t spot the team two goals all the time – [then] they’re energized and they’re winning all the battles.”

The underdog role is one the Maple Leafs have embraced in this series, the plucky bottom seed stepping up to challenge the Presidents’ Trophy winners. On the other side, Washington has spent the last couple days bombarded by questions about how they had fallen behind in this series to a team with a fraction of its experience that can bully them with their speed.

Failing to use that speed to their advantage was one of many mistakes that added up to cost Toronto.

“I thought they won all the battles and all the races,” Babcock said. “They were quicker. I thought we looked slow and they look fast. We weren’t good enough, we didn’t compete hard enough. It was real simple.”

If overconfidence was a factor for Toronto when they stepped on the ice, the Capitals’ stars took it away in a hurry. Their top line of Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie were all over the Maple Leafs in the offensive zone and it was Oshie (from the slot) and Ovechkin (from this usual right-circle spot on the power play) who silenced the Air Canada Centre crowd with their first and third goals of the series respectively. Oshie would score again in the third period with what ended up being the game-winning goal, aided by a pair of costly turnovers by the Leafs at their blue line.

After a quiet first game of the series, Washington’s best players have been among their best (as has Tom Wilson, who also scored twice in the victory). In the series so far, the visiting team has scored first in each game, and each side has stolen a win in enemy territory. Every contest has been decided by one goal, in regulation or overtime, so coming out of a loss they felt was a “missed opportunity,” the Leafs weren’t placated by the notion that as least they are managing to keep this thing close.

“We don’t think we’re hanging with them. We want to be in the driver’s seat,” said Morgan Rielly. “It’s playoffs. I don’t think they should be putting us away. It’s not about hanging on, and trying to squeak one out, it’s about controlling the play...and winning the game.”

Failing to do that started with a lack of execution in all three zones, but was also about not taking advantage when they should have. Toronto was down 4-2 to start the third period and had 1:54 of a 5-on-3 power play to start the frame. They put five shots on Braden Holtby, none of which went in.

One game after a 5-on-3 kill was a catalyst for their own victory, being stymied by the Capitals was the beginning of the end for their comeback hopes. For once Toronto actually stayed out of the box, taking just one minor penalty, but converted on only one of their four power play chances.

“I thought we had some pretty good opportunities there. [Holtby] came up big on some saves,” said Auston Matthews of the 5-on-3. “You got to credit them with some pretty good structure there but I think you got a five-on-three, fresh ice, down by two goals, that’s the time you need to score.”

While they’re not going head-to-head with the Backstrom line (that task belongs to Nazem Kadri, Leo Komarov and Connor Brown), Matthews’ line had dominated the Capitals in Game 3 and they created two of Toronto’s four goals on Wednesday. Both Zach Hyman and Matthews were successful by getting to the net and scoring greasy goals past Holtby, an area where the Maple Leafs will need to set up shop to stay alive as the series becomes a best-of-three.

“Before the series [started] you want to have confidence in yourself and what you’re able to do,” said Rielly. “You want to be able to put yourself in a position where you feel you’re able to win games and control the puck and I think over the course of the last couple games we’ve built that confidence. We’ve earned the right to have that. It’s important that in Game 5 we go out there and reestablish that.”

Takeaways

Better days ahead? Frederik Andersen has been Toronto’s most important player all season, and played extremely well in the series’ first two games in Washington. In Game 3 he made enough big stops to see Toronto through, but that wasn’t the case on Wednesday. Andersen stopped 22 of 25 shots he faced, posting the third-lowest save percentage of his playoff career in games he played to the end (.815). He seemed to struggle tracking the puck and gave up too many soft goals, like Oshie’s second, which was a similar spot (high short-side) as Wilson scored from in Game 1 and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored from in Game 3. That goal came on the Capitals' second shot of the period and 59 seconds after Matthews pulled Toronto to within one with eight minutes left in the frame, and it ended up being the nail in their coffin. Washington did a better job of keeping Toronto to the outside, while the Maple Leafs gave up more quality chances, but Andersen still said after the game, “I wish I could have helped my team a little more and come up bigger when they had chances.”

Puck play: When Holtby looked shaky making a couple saves in the second period, it appeared to be an opportunity for the Maple Leafs to take advantage of. The only problem was they never had the puck. Their possession numbers were abysmally low, clocking in at 26 per cent by midway through the second period. The strength of their final frame, where they outshot the Capitals 19-3 and dictated much of the play in their zone, helped balance the final total out to 46 per cent - in itself low for a team that was trailing from 2:58 onward. The Capitals pushed so hard to start the game at a pace they couldn’t maintain throughout, but they did enough to rattle Toronto and keep them from playing the fast, possession game they wanted to use.

Game of inches: The margin for error in playoffs is razor-thin, and one play can turn the tide on a dime. Trailing by one in the first period, Rielly came frustratingly close to tying the game with a five-hole strike that trickled between Holtby’s legs but was stopped at the goal line by the stick of Wilson. It was then that Wilson went barreling down the other way on the next rush and scored to put the Capitals up 3-1. When Wilson scored again, it was because of another mishap involving Rielly. The forward laid a bone-crunching hit on Rielly late in the period, and the blueliner fell to the ice as Andre Burakowsky’s skate caught him near the mouth. Rielly was bleeding profusely but no penalty was called and Wilson had a clear path to the net to spot Washington a three-goal lead. Those little shifts in momentum over the course of a game have favoured both sides over the last four contests, and Toronto had its breaks on Wednesday too. When it was 4-2 Capitals in the third period, it looked as though Nate Schmidt had added to their total but the goal was waved off for goaltender interference. Washington challenged, and lost, but it looked like the offending party (Backstrom) was sandwiched into Andersen by Jake Gardiner. Those breaks usually even out in the end.

Super kids: With Hyman’s goal, the Maple Leafs became just the second team in the last 25 years of playoffs to have five first-year goal scorers (Matthews, Nylander, Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen). The 2007-08 New York Rangers were the other club to accomplish the feat in that stretch. Marner tallied an assist on James van Riemsdyk’s goal, giving him three points in his first four NHL playoff games - a total Matthews matched with his own goal (2G, A).

Next game: Toronto travels back to Washington for Game 5 on Friday.