Washington Capitals

Washington Capitals vs Toronto Maple Leafs
April 10, 2017, 10:20 AM ET [49 Comments]
James Tanner
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The Washington Capitals finished up the regular season with a meaningless loss to the Florida Panthers. They will face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday in the first of what they hope will be four Playoff series.

Though last night's game was essentially a practice, it had a couple of significant developments:

First, Ovechkin played his 82nd game, for the first time since 2007-08. He finished with 33 goals, which is his lowest total since the lockout. He missed having his 4th (or 5th if you prorate the lockout year) straight 50 goal season. He did however complete his 12th straight 30+ goal season.

The second notable thing about last night's game was the call-up and NHL debut of Garret Mitchell, a 6th round pick from 2009 who has played almost 400 games in the AHL, but never been called up before. He's the Capitals AHL captain, and it was fun to see him live the dream for a night.

The Capitals had to wait until the last minute to find out who they would be playing: had the Leafs picked up a point last night vs Columbus, the Capitals would have found themselves playing the Bruins.



Now, it's hard to imagine they could have had much of a preference. On one hand, the Bruins are an experienced team with depth, tons of great players and a set of peripheral statistics that suggest they are way, way better than their record.

The Leafs are a young, fast team that looks to be vulnerable to playoff-style hockey. A young, fast team that isn't too into defense? What sounds familiar about that?

If this is a video game, we'd be saying the Capitals have to beat their younger self to continue.

And that might as well be the case.

The downside here is that you don't know what to expect out of the Leafs - if they get goaltending and the pucks bounce their way, they could be a disaster for the Capitals.

But, let's not forget that the Caps have been the best team in the NHL for 164 games.

They're also one of the bigger teams, and the Leafs are relatively small.

The Caps went 2-1 vs the Leafs this year, losing 4-2, winning 6-5 in OT and then winning 4-1 the other night, in a victory that helped set up this matchup.

In retrospect, maybe they shouldn't have won that game.



All in all, I think the Capitals would have been better off against the Bruins. The Bruins are predictable. They play a certain way and the Capitals are deeper, faster and stronger.

The Leafs on the other hand are unpredictable. They have first-line players strewn throughout their entire lineup. They are fast, possible the best purely offensive team in the NHL and they're so young you don't know from night to night if you'll be facing a pretender or a contender.

Do not kid yourself: The Captials are heavy, heavy favorites here. But upset potential looms. A fast, talented team and the Capitals damaged playoff psyche isn't the best mix.

It should be a cake-walk, but we'll have to see.