Capitals get swept by Maple Leafs in regular season

The Washington Capitals fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1. The loss didn't set the Caps back too bad as they remain two points ahead of the Red Wings in the second wild card spot and just a point back of the Flyers for third in the Metropolitan Division.

Mark Giordano struck first at 10:09. 1-0 was the score after one with the Caps being outshot 19-8. Charlie Lindgren had his work cut out for him. 18 seconds into the second it was Tyler Bertuzzi who gave them the 2-0 lead.

At 5:27 Nic Dowd put the Caps on the board with his 10th goal of the season. It was a tip in and Nick Jensen and Hendrix Lapierre had the assists. At 11:38 the Maple Leafs answered with a goal from Connor Dewar.

In the third at 1:06, Bobby McMann made it 4-1. Bertuzzi added his second goal of the game at 10:11. The Caps were outshot 14-10 in the second and 15-6 in the third to be outshot by a whooping 48-24 overall. Is that bad defense or a good Leafs offense? I'd go with the latter.

"I don't think the opponent necessarily matters," T.J. Oshie told the media in Toronto. "They played really hard tonight and their forwards were trekking really hard. You know, they were doing a good job but we were just little sleepy tonight on a lot of plays."

"We're not a team that can play without guys getting the puck and moving their feet. We're not a team that can have success if we're not keeping things simple and moving the puck quickly. And we're certainly not a team that can turn the pucks over in the neutral zone."

The Caps look to bounce back on home ice on Saturday night as they host the Boston Bruins.