WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thursday was Canines Night at Capital One Arena.
In celebration, the Washington Capitals acted like dawgs, while the Toronto Maple Leafs seemed content to dog it.
Both teams entered this season with designs on a Stanley Cup, but after taking in 60 minutes of head-to-head action, you’d have to be one sick puppy to believe the visitors have any shot at contending for a championship with this type of effort.
What made the Capitals so great of a challenge for the Maple Leafs in this 4-0 dismantling?
“Ourselves,” Craig Berube said, flashing some teeth postgame.
“They played with more passion than we did tonight. I mean, that’s what it boils down to. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That’s the difference.”
How does the head coach explain that discrepancy in effort, given his Leafs are four points and four teams away from the playoff cut line?
“Ask those guys, not me,” Berube replied.
He was referring to a room full of players who are either tuning him out or no longer willing to invest the effort required to execute Berube’s hardnosed, straight-line system. A room he opted not to address after the blanking/spanking, instead letting his Leafs quietly stew in the mess.
Berube has tried encouragement in the past. (He went so far as to describe Tuesday’s skin-of-their-teeth 3-2 comeback over the Connor Bedard-less Blackhawks a “character win.”) But none could be found from his press conference in the U.S. capital.
The Leafs mustered just four shots in the first period, despite spending six minutes on the power play, and ended up 0-for-5 on the man-advantage.
It was the power play’s worst performance in an autumn full of contenders.
“Tonight, it was godawful,” Berube said. “Our top unit didn’t execute, didn’t win any battles when they needed to, just couldn’t make plays.”
Even-strength wasn’t much prettier.
The Capitals were faster and more organized. They acted bigger and more engaged. More decisive and determined.
Berube’s nuclear option when offensive momentum has been hard to come by has been to stack his top line, couching No. 1 centre Auston Matthews with the best available wingers, Matthew Knies and William Nylander.
That trio got outshot 7-0 through 40 minutes before getting chucked in the blender. The lines were a dog’s breakfast after that.
Did Berube see enough juice from his best forwards?
“No. Not even close.”
For those keeping score at home, the coach has not-so-subtly pointed a finger at his eight-figure superstars twice in five days.
What say the leaders of the Eastern Conference’s 14th-place team?
John Tavares: “We weren’t really crisp with the puck. Things weren’t always clean, and that’s where you got to fall back on just being a really difficult team to play against, and we just weren’t tough enough to play against today.”
William Nylander: “We’re a little bit disconnected. I mean, some stints where we got them, but it’s not good enough. I mean, a couple of shifts here and there is not gonna cut it.”
Auston Matthews: “We just made it really easy on easy for them. The neutral zone was a highway for them to get through. I don’t know. We just made it so easy for them.”
Matthews admitted that the Leafs didn’t compete hard enough.
Which is both true and damning.
“That’s got to be the main point of focus each and every night. Like, we don’t have to be the best team in the world every single night. But we need everybody to compete. We need everybody to just play good,” Matthews said.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been the Maple Leafs’ best defenceman this season. He knows what a Cup winner looks and feels like. He was on one less than two years ago.
He said the Capitals were more desperate.
But how can that be, when Toronto only sits one point out of the conference basement?
“I agree. Totally agree with you,” Ekman-Larsson said. “That’s what we’re talking about. That’s what we want to do. But it’s one thing to talk about it. It’s another thing to do it. And I think that’s the hard part right now, and that’s something we need to figure out.
“I don’t think we deserved better tonight.”
Nope.
Here’s a little perspective on how the Maple Leafs have played through 33 games: The team one point below them in the Atlantic Division just fired their general manager, and no one argued that it was the wrong call.
Why has it been so difficult for the Maple Leafs to build upon wins, to sustain a level of effort and consistency this season?
“I don’t know,” Nylander said, stumped.
“It’s a tough question.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• For the first time all season, the Maple Leafs started their No. 2 goalie — in this case, an excellent but under siege Dennis Hildeby — in a non-back-to-back situation.
This sets up Joseph Woll to get the two easier opponents, Nashville (Saturday) and Pittsburgh (Tuesday), before Christmas, and for Hildeby to get Dallas on Sunday.
Toronto is exercising caution with Woll.
“With Woll coming back off of injury,” Berube said, “we thought about him tonight again. But I think it’s important that we make sure that he’s rested and ready to go for the next one.”
• Quote of the Day.
“I don’t know what it is. It’s like they’re taking sleeping pills before the games. Instead of sniffers on the bench, they’re taking Ambien. That’s how they look sometimes. There’s just no energy.” — former Leafs player and former Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau on the Maple Leafs.
• Time for something extreme on the power play.
Create two fresh units and let them compete? Start the second unit exclusively? Hire a new power-play coach?
Status quo is not working.
Is a more drastic change coming?
“It could be, yeah, for sure,” Berube said. “That’s something we’ll definitely look at.”
• Matias Maccelli served his ninth consecutive healthy scratch. He has turned into a $3.425-million fifth-liner, which is how things ended for him in Utah.
The trade-block forward spoke with Berube on the ice at Tuesday’s morning skate for a couple minutes.
Bet on the shifty playmaker to finally get another chance this weekend.
“We’ve got to get him in there soon. I’d like to, anyhow,” Berube said. “He’s been out long enough due to unplanned circumstances, but we need him. This guy is a good player, and my job is to get him back in the lineup.”
Berube believes Maccelli has kept a positive attitude.
“He knows he has to be better, and he understands the situation very well,” Berube said. “I don’t sense frustration from him.”
• Berube, who celebrated his 60th birthday in D.C. Wednesday, spent six seasons as a Capital and reached his only Stanley Cup Final as a player here.
“Dale Hunter and I were teammates for a long time here. I formed a great friendship with him coming in here. I wanted to kill him from days in Philly, but we became good friends,” the coach reflected.
“Just all the great people that I was able to work with here and play for, trainers and players, I made a lot of good friendships here. I was here a long time. And the run we had to the (1998) Stanley Cup Final was something I remember a lot. It was a great run. I really enjoyed my time here.”
