The Washington Capitals were outplayed by a better team in the Toronto Maple Leafs as they left Capital One Arena with a 7-3 win. But the mood among fans wasn't agony of the Caps being on the outside looking in. Instead it was awe from what they saw between the two best goal scorers in the NHL.
Auston Matthews and Alex Ovechkin each scored twice and one of them or even both very well could've gotten a hat trick.
Matthews struck first 16 seconds into the contest. 56 seconds into the second, William Nylander doubled the lead for the opposition. Then Ovechkin struck on the power play from the office at 9:57 with a slap shot. John Carlson and Tom Wilson had the assists.
Matthews would answer with his second goal of the night at 12:59 to go up 3-1. Connor McMichael made it a one goal deficit with his 15th of the season at 13:34. Rasmus Sandin and Ivan Miroshnichenko had the assists.
Jake McCabe made it a two goal game once again at 19:35 and 4-2 was the score after two periods. The Caps outshot the Maple Leafs 10-8 in the first but were outshot 14-7 in that second period. In the thrid the Caps were outshot 7-4 to be outshot 29-21 overall.
At 6:42 in the third Ovechkin added his second goal of the game at 23rd of the season. It came on a wrist shot from the office at even strength and put him 49 goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky and 50 to pass the great one.
Then it was all Maple Leafs after we shake, rattled, and rolled. Bobby McMann at 7:58, Tyler Bertuzzi at 8:36 and John Tavares at 16:02 on the power play put the game away.
The Caps will look to bounce back on Friday night as they welcome Evgeny Kuznetsov and the Carolina Hurricanes to town. Yes I know it's been nearly two weeks and it's still weird to even be writing such a sentence.