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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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- When Toronto and Washington first met this season, it was on the second night of a back-to-back for the Capitals on the Maple Leafs’ home ice. Toronto dominated for most of the game, dropping the Caps 4-2. Mitch Marner had two assists in that contest, and Matt Martin tussled with Tom Wilson. Washington goalie Braden Holtby was visibly upset by the defeat, and said his club got “embarrassed by a young team.” With the season series moving to Washington now, the Maple Leafs know Holtby and the Capitals will be out of revenge. “They’re a good team. We beat them in our building last time, we had the advantage, they had played the night before, and they’ll be ready tonight,” Mike Babcock said. “The challenge is they’re four lines deep and good goaltending so they’ve got a real good team.” While Babcock’s players acknowledge there could be some extra juice in the Capitals’ for Tuesday’s game, they’re focused on treating them like any other opponent. “We just want to keep playing the way we’ve been playing, not get off topic,” Marner said. “When we’re playing heavy and moving the puck down low it’s hard to contain us. I think we just have to maintain that here tonight.”

- The Capitals hold a major advantage over the Maple Leafs in their home rink – Washington is 16-3-1 hosting Toronto with Alex Ovechkin in the lineup. Ovechkin has been a Leafs killer of sorts, posting 15 goals and 18 assists in his career against them on home ice. At Washington is Toronto’s third-longest road losing streak – they’re 0-5-1 dating back to their last win on Feb. 5, 2013. The chance to prove themselves on this stage, and show their recent road success isn’t a fluke, is something Toronto takes to heart. “Every time you a game against a good team you want to come out and be better,” said goalie Frederik Andersen. “I think we focused on playing good hockey as we have the last little section, and they’re a good team so we have to make sure we play the right way and keep the good habits we’re developing, so it’s a good test.”

- Connor Carrick is making his second trip to Verizon Center since being traded by the Capitals to Toronto on the eve of the 2016 trade deadline. The defenceman was a fifth-round choice for Washington in 2012 and played in 37 games for them. Carrick doesn’t need any insider knowledge to know what to expect from his former team tonight. “Number one, they’re at home. Teams are usually better, that’s how it goes,” Carrick said of the impending matchup. “Two, any time a team gets your number the first time, you do remember it. We play a lot of hockey, but not that much. We’re able to remember who got a piece of you last time and we’re expecting them to be charged up.”

- After an abysmal start to the season on the road, Toronto has perked up away from Air Canada Centre lately. They’ve won their last five road games, and are on a five-game winning streak overall. None of those five teams are currently in the playoff picture – two were at the bottom of the league – and the Capitals’ are the first contending team Toronto has played since the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 19. The Maple Leafs enter Tuesday’s game three points back of the Boston Bruins for the third playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, with four games in hand. The challenge presented by Washington will be a good litmus test of where the Maple Leafs are as the halfway point of the season approaches. “There’s that certain group of teams at the top of the league that have been there for a couple years, and Washington it one of them,” Carrick said. “If you want to maintain these [winning] streaks, a couple of these hot teams and stronger contenders are going to be on your schedule. Any time you can win, which is what we’re trying to do, you kind of establish yourself that way. To be amongst them, you have to go through them.” Toronto is averaging five goals per game on this recent stretch of victories, but the Capitals are stingy when it comes to giving up scores, allowing a league-low 2.06 per game.

- Special teams could end up being extra special for one team in Tuesday’s game. Toronto has given up 22 power plays in their last five games – mainly stemming from bad stick penalties – and their penalty kill has been sensational, killing off all 22. On the other side, their power play has looked fine in terms of production – five goals in the last five games – but it hasn’t been a momentum builder to the degree the team would like. They still struggle to get set up and sustain pressure on an opponent. That task will be no easier on Tuesday after the third-best penalty kill in the league. Washington hasn’t allowed a power-play goal in their last seven games. Even though the Capitals’ own man advantage chances haven’t been regularly translating into goals – it hasn’t yielded a goal in six straight games – with Ovechkin out there, it’s always a threat. “We’ve been talking here about not giving the power play too many looks, but we want to try and play hard but not taking stick penalties and stuff like that,” Andersen said. “We have to be aware of some of [Washington]’s skill players and be playing fast to get out of our zone and that way we can create offence, which is what we’ve been doing these last few games.”

- As they’ve gotten into the thick of the playoff hunt, the Maple Leafs have begun fielding questions about whether they think the team’s rebuild is now ahead of schedule. Only a few weeks ago Toronto was a .500 team still looking to win their second segment of the season, and players haven’t lost sight of that. “You’d have to ask Coach Babcock and [Lou] Lamoriello and see what their projections would be,” Carrick said of where the team is at. “We think we’re on par with where we want to be. We want to make playoffs. We want to be a team that’s a lot to handle on both sides of the puck and on special teams.” Throughout the season the refrain from around the dressing room has been about getting better, and the importance of the young players learning how to be pros night in and night out. But winning can start to change perspectives on where a club should be – if they let it. “We’re just here doing our job every day,” Andersen said. “It sounds really cliché, but we want to work hard in here and let [the front office] work on what their plans are. We go out there to win every shift and every game, so that’s really all we can think about.”

Morning skate lines

Toronto

Komarov-Kadri-Nylander
Hyman-Matthews-Brown
Van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Marner
Martin-Gauthier-Soshnikov

Rielly-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Carrick
Hunwick-Polak

Andersen starts

Washington

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Johansson-Kuznetsov-Williams
Connolly-Eller-Burakovsky
Winnik-Beagle-Wilson

Alzner-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-Chorney

Holtby starts