Game #33
Caps (20-6-6, 46 points) at Toronto Maple Leafs (10-14-7, 27 points)
Just three weeks ago the Caps looked sluggish against a Toronto team that was in the basement in the Eastern Conference and dropped a 2-1 shootout loss at Air Canada Centre. We’ll see how they do tonight after not arriving in Toronto until noon today because of plane issues after the 4-3 win over Carolina last night.
The Caps are 8-3-2 in this stretch of 15 road games out of 22. Another road win tonight would ease the pressure of playing three Western Conference games next week on the road. That won’t be an easy trip, starting Tuesday in Colorado. Rookie Michal Neuvirth starts in goal for the Caps tonight. Semyon Varlamov is on injured reserve and Jose Theodore just played Friday.
Washington is playing on Hockey Night In Canada for the third time in four weeks and have another one set for next weekend at Edmonton. Alex Ovechkin plays hard every night. But these games tend to give him a little extra juice. He has 16 career goals in 17 games against Toronto and 24 points overall. The Leafs got off to an abysmal start this year. But they have won six of their last nine and seven of 11 now and are slowly creeping back into playoff contention just five points behind eighth-place Montreal.
