Gameday Preview:  Toronto Maple Leafs vs Washington Capitals

Washington Capitals

Time: Saturday, October 13^th 2018

Toronto : 4-1-0 for 8 points

Washington: 2-1-1 for 5 points

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Washington Capitals meet for their first meeting of the season, in what has the making to be a HIGH OCTANE OFFENSIVE affair.  Toronto comes off back to back road wins in Chicago 7-6 in OT and Dallas 7-4. The first 4 games have shown that almost any defensive problem that the Leafs face they can outscore. It’s also been the Matthews, Marner and Tavares show, the 3 have combined for 24 points in the first 4 games.  Tonight will be a huge challenge for the young Leafs team.

While Washington has come flying out of the gates after their huge Stanley Cup last season. The attack is led by none other than the Russian sensation Alex Ovechkin, and followed up by Evgeni Kuznetsov, TJ Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson just to name a few. The offence is going to come fast and hard from the Stanley Cup Champions. Brayden Holtby has been fantastic to open the season, opening with a shutout and after getting roughed up in the 2^nd game against Pens, Holtby found his groove once again only allowing 2 to the Golden Knights.

Top Scorers/Goalie Matchup

Matthews – 12 points (9 goals 3 assists) 52% on Face-offs
Rielly – 12 points (3 goals 9 assists)
Tavares – 10 points (6 goals 4 assists) 51% on face-offs

Kuznetsov –7 points (3 goals 4 assists)
Oshie ,Carlson & Backstrom – 6 points (4 goals 2 assists, 2 goals 4 assists & 1 goal 5 assist)
Ovechkin – 5 points (4 goals 1 assist)

Frederik Andersen
3-1-0 3.28GAA .893SV%

Brayden Holtby
2-0-1 2.98GAA .907SV% 1SO

Lineups & Injuries

Toronto:

Patrick Marleau — Auston Matthews — Kasperi Kapanen

Zach Hyman — John Tavares — Mitchell Marner

Par Lindholm — Nazem Kadri — Connor Brown

Josh Leivo — Frederik Gauthier — Andreas Johnsson

Morgan Rielly — Ron Hainsey

Jake Gardiner — Nikita Zaitsev

Travis Dermott — Igor Ozhiganov

Frederik Andersen

Garret Sparks

Scratched: Justin Holl, Martin Marincin, Tyler Ennis

Injured: None

4 Keys to Winning in Washington:

1. Stop Ovechkin
   1. Ovi has been a Leaf killer his whole career, now if the Leafs are going to win this game they need to shut him down even a small amount. Watch the slapper from the circle and Ovi`s speed and stickhandling
2. Do not get into a scoring showdown with the champs
   1. Don`t wanna play no defence and all offence again this team. I can almost guarantee you they win.
3. Depth Scoring
   1. Leivo, Kadri, Brown, Gauthier, Ennis need to build off their performance in Dallas. Lots of zone time and scoring chances. I can`t repeat this enough every stinking game.
4. Don`t Take Dumb Penalties & Draw penalties
   1. You can`t risk it against the Capitals power play, but make them work against your power play.

For a preview of the Washington Capitals, please read Michael Lindenbaum’s preview here.

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