After possibly the Leafs' worst effort of the season at home against Buffalo, Toronto followed it up with a dynamic offensive showing against the Washington Capitals
Here are my 5 takeaways as the Leafs put 7 past the Caps.
1. Ilya Dominance
Toronto's beloved Russians excelled during their win on Thursday night. Ilya Mikheyev and Ilya Mikheyev each got on the scoresheet, with Mikheyev notching two goals, and were generally very positive on both ends.
Let's start with Mikheyev. The winger was Toronto's best player, absolutely carving up Washington's defense every single time he entered the zone. He made quick cuts in and around the net, constantly buzzing around for opportunities. He was rewarded for his effort with two goals, including one beautiful move while short-handed to extend the lead to 7-2. He nearly had a hat-trick, getting stopped by Vitek Vanecek on yet another short-handed opportunity. Mikheyev is a key part of the Leafs' "power kill" that resulted in yet more trouble for the opposing team. He also has been a better fit for John Tavares than William Nylander was in the early months of 2022. It's not hard to imagine "Cobra" being a second-line player in the postseason. Hopefully, being given that opportunity will be enough to convince Mikheyev to resign in Toronto.
The real surprise performance on the night came from Ilya Lyubushkin, though. Many people speculated that the February trade between Arizona and Toronto was simply meant as a cap dump for Nick Ritchie's contract to allow the Leafs to pursue a player like Mark Giordano. However, one of the pieces that the Leafs acquired in that deal was Ilya Lyubushkin, who has been an unmitigated success in the Blue and White. He leads all Leafs with 74 hits since his arrival and has often been paired up with Morgan Rielly on Toronto's top pair. In last night's game, "Boosh" had 1 goal, 1 assist and an xGF% of above 80%. It was almost assuredly his best performance in a Leafs uniform and considering tonight marked the game in which he scored just his second career NHL goal, possibly his best ever performance at the NHL level.
If the Ilyas can keep chipping in like this, it will take a huge load off of players like Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly to carry the load at their respective positions.
2. What to Do with Liljegren?
It wasn't a flawless game from Timothy Liljegren, who couldn't handle the puck at the line very well. He didn't cover up his gaps like we know he can. Nevertheless, it was still an obvious improvement on what we've been getting from Justin Holl recently.
I think it's fine to start Holl every now and then in the regular season to encourage competition for the Leafs' 6th defenseman slot, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that keeping Liljegren out in favour of Holl would be a potentially dangerous mistake for coach Sheldon Keefe to make. Liljegren has been a good fit with multiple different defensemen, whereas only TJ Brodie has been able to make Justin Holl look competent this season.
It was revealed after the game that Jake Muzzin would be missing the next 2 games, which likely means that Holl will draw in as his replacement. Don't get me wrong, I'm not scared that Holl has to play for the Leafs. I simply think that if the Leafs want to ice the very best edition of their team for the postseason, it will include Timothy Liljegren, rather than Justin Holl.\
One possible situation to monitor that could throw a wrench into the whole situation is Rasmus Sandin. Yeah, remember him? Sandin was placed on long-term injured reserve about three weeks ago and wasn't expected to make a return until late in the regular season. Apparently, the young Swede impressed in solo drills this week. Could he return and make a late move to make the Leafs' sixth defenseman slot his own? Could Jake Muzzin's injury continue to flare up and leave room for both Holl and Liljegren? We will have to wait and see.
3. 100 for Matthews
It seems like every game that Auston Matthews plays in these days, he breaks a record. Despite not scoring in his past 2 games (oh no, what a long drought!), Matthews picked up 2 assists against Washington, which marked his 100th and 101st points of the season. In doing so, the Arizona native became just the third Leafs player ever to reach triple-digits in a single season. Only Doug Gilmour and Darryl Sittler, two all-time greats of the game, have notched more points in a season than Matthews has for Toronto.
I don't even need to remind you that he still has 8 games to add to his total. I don't even need to remind you that he is just two goals off of 60 for the entire season. I don't have to remind you that he will likely become the first Leaf to win the Hart Trophy since Ted Kennedy in 1955. Matthews has been arguably the biggest storyline of this entire NHL season.
He is an absolute machine and he'll need to be in the playoffs as well. It looks like Tampa Bay might be Toronto's first round opponents. That's right. What is Toronto's reward for what will possibly be their best ever regular season? Likely a date with the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Doesn't the NHL know that I've already lost all hope?
Notice how I haven't mentioned that the Leafs are 0 for 14 in their last three games on the power play? I'm trying to dwell on the positives before Andrei Vasilevskiy puts up a .940 SV% to eliminate the Leafs in 7 games. *insert crying noises*
4. Nasty Game
Any game in which Tom Wilson is involved has a chance to turn ugly. Add in a blowout, a goal from Tom Wilson himself and Kyle Clifford, you'll get a physical game. In all honesty, I was impressed with how the Leafs handled this game...for the most part.
I don't always believe in the saying that teams should hurt them on the scoreboard. I think that if a team starts playing dirty, you should play dirty in return. However, it's true that Toronto made the Capitals pay for their physicality. The second period was essentially a Leafs game and a Hall and Oates concert rolled into one.
The Leafs did get some hits in, with Morgan Rielly notably absolutely laying out Johan Larsson behind the net. They played with the intensity that you'd expect from a playoff game. However, there was one moment that stuck out to me in particular.
After Wilson rammed into the head of Leafs goalie Jack Campbell, the response was minimal to say the least. Kyle Clifford eventually fought him (and admittedly got absolutely rocked), but in the heat of the moment, the Leafs just left Wilson alone.
The hit to Campbell wasn't completely Wilson's fault, but Toronto have been accused of having a lack of heart and passion in big games. This was a chance to put that behind them and go after Wilson. To leave him alone was a bit perplexing to me and I hope that this isn't a trend that continues into the postseason.
5. Capitals in Freefall
Mark my words, the Washington Capitals will be the league's worst team in 5 years' time. Unless Washington can become a good drafting team out of nowhere, Outside of Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre, Washington don't have much in terms of prospect depth. Their forwards are all on the wrong side of their careers and their top two guys, Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin, likely have less than 4 years at the top in the tank (though you never know with Ovi). In Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov, Washington don't have a special goalie capable of stealing games.
Though their power play has bounced back to leave the Caps in a comfortable playoff spot, I suspect this may be the beginning of the end for the Washington Capitals. This could very well be their last playoff appearance for a very long time.
ALL STATS COURTESY OF EVOLVING HOCKEY AND NATURAL STAT TRICK
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