WASHINGTON, D.C. – “Unreal,” said William Nylander as he made his way to the bus on the wrong side of midnight.
All of it.
Kasperi Kapanen’s winning goal in double overtime and the pass of Brian Boyle’s life to create it. Or how about the fact Kapanen won a faceoff against Evgeny Kuznetsov 20 seconds before scoring in what was the first recorded faceoff attempt of his entire NHL career?
The young Leafs came into Verizon Center, a building where the Washington Capitals lost all of nine times this season, and allowed the Presidents’ Trophy winners to lead for a grand total of three minutes 19 seconds.
Over two games.
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“Two overtime games,” Boyle said after Saturday’s 4-3 victory. “That’s kind of baptism by fire for some of these guys and that’s a great thing for them. A great opportunity for them to have.”
This was a night where the Leafs could truly start dreaming of pulling off an upset in this series.
The gap in play has so far been much narrower than the 23 points that separated these teams in the standings during the regular season. The Leafs and Capitals each had several good chances to end Game 2 – with each failing to convert on a power play during the first overtime, and Alex Ovechkin squandering a late breakaway – before Kapanen finally stopped the clock at 11:53 of the second.
Series tied.
“I don’t think we expect to just have an experience, we want to be here for real and play as good as we can,” said Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen. “Everyone’s talking about how it’s been unexpected for us to just make the playoffs but we want to do more.”
They have already shown more than just an ability to perform at the level required in the post-season. There have also been hints of the perseverance needed to weather the inevitable storms that blow through in the spring.
On Saturday, it was managing the loss of rugged defenceman Roman Polak to a gruesome-looking right ankle/leg injury that instantly ended his season.
He went down right in front of the bench after getting hit by Brooks Orpik and awkwardly having his leg caught under him. There were some long faces as he was helped off in agony.
Yet, it wasn’t too long before Kapanen scored his first goal of the night – waiting, waiting, waiting for the right bounce in the high slot, as coach Mike Babcock had instructed – and the game was tied 2-2.
“(Kapanen’s) fast,” said Boyle. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform. He wants to do well. He wants to contribute. … It’s great to have that confidence in your ability and that’s something that’s really impressive. That’s something most guys struggle with.
“I struggled with it as a young guy.”
The 20-year-old Finn was so disappointed after being sent to the American Hockey League at the start of the season that he chose not to watch the Leafs games on television. He didn’t want to see what he was missing. Kapanen ended being recalled on March 27 and now has three of the bigger goals of the season – the two on Saturday and the late tying marker against Pittsburgh last weekend to help the team clinch a playoff spot.
“I think we’ve proved to everybody that we can play with these guys,” said Kapanen. “We’re the underdogs for sure but the way we’ve been playing, I think we can play better in certain areas. We’re going to give them a run for their money.”
You would never have known they had played well into the night as they packed up for home.
There was a buoyancy as Mitchell Marner walked out with a Pepsi in one hand, some sort of chocolate-looking shake and a bunch of food in the other. His teammates ate orange slices or gulped back sports drinks.
The depleted blue line was taxed heavily – Jake Gardiner (40:42), Morgan Rielly (40:12) and Matt Hunwick (35:19) all played more than any Caps player – but there was nothing but smiles from those men.
“As far as the minutes go, we’ll be fine,” said Rielly. “We’ve got young legs.”
They will hope to get the injured Nikita Zaitsev back for Monday’s Game 3 at Air Canada Centre. They will expect a big push from Washington, which now realizes it’s in for a real series.
There were so many little moments where the Leafs could have panicked or wavered – especially when Boyle was sent off for tripping midway through the first overtime. He sat in the penalty box feeling extremely frustrated with himself.
“The guys, geez, they picked me up huge,” he said.
An opportunity to make amends came later when the fourth line got an offensive zone shift against the Kuznetsov unit. Boyle sensed those Capitals players were slowing down while he, Kapanen and Matt Martin felt pretty fresh.
Once defenceman John Carlson lost a stick, it left Kapanen open at the side of the goal and Boyle found him with a pretty backhand pass. Huge win. The big man pounded the glass while he and his teammates celebrated.
“Well, we earned it, I think,” said Boyle. “And we should feel pretty good about that. But we understand if we go through all the tape of the game and we see kind of what happened, some of the breakdowns, you see how razor-thin the margin for error is. Pucks can go in. The game could have ended a lot earlier.
“Both ways, though. We created our own chances. They’re human, too. They’re a great club. We’ve got a lot of respect for them. But we need to kind of control that and understand that our systems work, and we believe in them.”
Heading home with a reason to believe.
Unreal.
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