Jakob Chychrun scored two goals, and Logan Thompson stopped all 22 shots he faced as the Washington Capitals downed the Maple Leafs 4-0 Thursday night at Capital One Arena.
The Leafs managed to wake up just in time to defeat the Blackhawks on Tuesday, but there would be no alarm clock to jar them into a competitive hockey team on this night. The Leafs started flat, remained flat, and finished flat, creating only a few high-danger opportunities while scrambling to possess the puck and generating next to nothing on their power play.
Aliaksei Protas opened the scoring for Washington in the first, tapping in the puck from out in front of the net while battling a double team from Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The goal at the 13:53 mark was the centremen’s 11th on the season.
Chychrun added to the Capitals’ lead later in the period. Connor McMichael flung the puck in from the blue line, Ethen Frank deflected it behind the net, where it took a sharp angled carom onto the stick of the defencemen who beat Leafs’ goaltender Dennis Hildeby to make it 2-0.
The score remained that way until the third. At the 4:04 mark, Chychrun fired home his second of the night and 14th on the season. The Capitals caught Toronto on a bad line change that allowed Chychrun to walk in and snipe one past Hildeby at point-blank range.
John Carlson tacked on another goal at 8:57, with a hard wrist shot from the boards that went over the shoulder of Hildeby to make it 4-0. That was the final on a night that Toronto would soon like to forget
Next up: The Leafs travel to Nashville to take on the Predators Saturday Night at Bridgestone Arena.
