Capitals cost themselves with key mistakes in loss to Maple Leafs

Caps cost themselves with key mistakes in loss to Leafs originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

For a team that’s struggled to string together much of anything positive in the last two months, the Capitals showed signs of breaking out of their slump against one of the league’s best Monday night.

But every time they had a chance to take advantage, they made a few self-inflicted mistakes and, in the end, it cost them on the scoreboard in a 5-3 loss to the Leafs at Capital One Arena.

The Capitals played well for large stretches of the night, and were stellar in a few areas, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a few missed chances that ended up haunting them by the end of the game.

“I think once we found our game, we realized how to kind of tilt the ice and they didn’t get much,” Tom Wilson said. “But when you’re playing a team like that, you give them a little space there, they’re going to make plays. Little bit of a four-on-four there at the end of the game and they find a way to get one. It’s a tough one, but we’ll just keep moving forward here.”

But of all the mistakes that cost Washington, the final few minutes will hurt the most.

With time winding down, the Capitals couldn’t get control of the puck behind their own net. The puck ended up on Justin Holl’s stick after a John Tavares forecheck, then a wide open Rasmus Sandin scored to put the Leafs up 4-3 with just 3:23 left to play.

“They stripped a couple pucks and were able to keep the puck in the zone and our guys got a little bit tired, but I don’t think it was anything that they did that we didn’t expect,” Conor Sheary said of the final goal. “I think it was maybe a little bit, you start running around a little bit when you get tired and they changed and got fresh guys on the ice and we just lost our coverage.”

Washington put pressure on Toronto in the final few moments, but it simply didn’t have enough time to get the equalizer. That felt cruel, in a way, as there was a…