The Washington Capitals fell 4-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime Wednesday after surrendering a two-goal lead late in the third period. The Caps allowed two goals in the final five minutes of regulation — plus two more in the third period that were overturned upon review — to give up another game to a team playing the second half of a back-to-back.
Head coach Spencer Carbery held nothing back when speaking to reporters after the loss, calling out his players for ceding what should have been a clear-cut win.
“[Things went wrong] second half of the game, but yeah, not good at all. Embarrassing, for that matter,” he said. “The way that that game played out, just embarrassing. Flat out — that’s unrecognizable from our team.
“Playing a team on a back-to-back, third period, the way that that looked, and the two-goal lead. Embarrassing on home ice.”
Carbery refused to break down the individual mistakes that piled up as the game went on: mistakes that saw William Nylander — who Carbery highlighted pregame as a player to look out for — bring Toronto within one, that saw Nic Dowd take a late penalty with less than a minute to go, that allowed Mitch Marner to tie the game with a power play goal, that allowed John Tavares to go on a breakaway in overtime to score the game-winning goal, giving the Leafs the lead for the first time all night.
“I’m not going to get into all of the things that transpired and which you just watched,” he said, cutting off a question midway through. “Because, yeah, they’ll all be addressed, and [we’ll] figure all those situations out, but you saw it. You watched it.”
He later added, “You can’t even break the game down from structure. For us to have a lead like that and play the way that we did and the lack of — just go down the list: from compete, all of that stuff, and then you look at some of the structure mistakes, and the puck touches and just check every single box.”
Rasmus Sandin, who has now lost all four games against his former team since the Leafs traded him to Washington in 2023, spoke on the dangers of getting complacent after a hot start to the year.
“Even though we’ve had it good before, but it doesn’t matter what happened in past games for us. We just need to do a better job this game. Can’t play with our heads too high for the record it’s been. It’s been a short season. It’s what, 68, 67 games left? So we need to keep playing good hockey and be way better than this.”
Aliaksei Protas pointed out that, for better or worse, Washington’s play against Toronto was uncharacteristic of the team’s season so far. The Capitals had yet to lose a game when leading after two periods and have largely been successful at defending once going up.
None of that showed Wednesday night. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Leafs outshot the Caps 18-7 in the third period; at five-on-five, they out-chanced Washington 14-4. And when Toronto mounted offensive pressure, the Capitals crumbled.
“From the start, we were good, and we started to make some unacceptable plays we usually don’t make,” Protas said. “And it started to fall apart. We had the chances to close this game out, and we didn’t, so it’s for sure on us. We’ve got to move forward, learn from that, and we’ve got a big road trip coming up, so got to be ready for that.”
The Capitals have been undefeated after losses so far this year, most recently blowing out the St. Louis Blues 8-1 after falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins the night before. If they want to avoid another drudging, Carbery argues, they’ll need to put their money where their mouth is.
“So a couple things need to happen, and it’s where people are saying the right things, then you have to actually go do the right things,” he said. “And that’s where the connection is lost. There’s a lot of the right things being said, less action.”
