Caps Clean Up on HNIC with 4 – 2 Win

He did not look sharp after and his positional play was suspect at times.

Rust may have been a factor, but Bernier was simply not up to the task and his head coach was not impressed with the overall performance.

“Lot of these injuries that happen in practice, you get scared and you scare yourself”, Babcock said. “30 days, 12 games, you have a duffle bag and you don’t get to go home”. “And it didn’t work in that area for us tonight”. Just when he starts to play well and skate away with the starters job, the injury bug comes back to bite him.

Chimera opened the scoring at 3:43 of the first period by floating a rolling puck past Bernier, who made his first start in nearly two weeks and is still looking for his first victory of the season (0-8-1). The Leafs dominated possession and shots (16-4).

A Brooks Laich turnover in the neutral zone led to a goal from Toronto’s Peter Holland less than three minutes later. In comparison, the two games that the team allowed 10 or more shots against, he only allowed one goal on a combined 23 shots against; with similarly skewed numbers for James Reimer in low shot periods over his career with the Leafs, it will be interesting to see if Sparks continues that trend.

That means the likes of Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak, Dion Phaneuf, Daniel Winnik, Leo Komarov, P-A Parenteau, Shawn Matthias, Roman Polak, James Reimer, Brad Boyes and Michael Grabner are all still in play as the Leafs look to rebuild. It was his eighth goal of the campaign.

Later in the frame, Caps on the powerplay and Ovechkin with the shot, it goes off Marcus Johansson. 888 save percentage, politely declined interviews after Sparks spoke, while Reimer said he hoped to play mid-week. “I didn’t think we were a very hard team”.

Bernier said he is anxious to get back in action.

The crowd let out a Bronx cheer after Bernier’s next save.

Elsewhere, the Edmonton Oilers earned a rare win over the Penguins in Pittsburgh, downing their opponents 3-2 via a shoot-out and the Philadelphia Flyers breezed past the New York Rangers 3-0. “I just know that Sparks gets an opportunity today”.

The Maple Leafs, well-rested after a five-day break, pressed early in the third period but Holtby was up to the task. Apart from hitting a pair of posts on a power play, the Leafs didn’t put up a legitimate comeback threat. “We were fortunate”, Trotz said. “Tried to shoot as quickly as I could”, said Khaira.

Sparks, a seventh round pick by the Maple Leafs in 2011, has worked his way up through the pro hockey ranks playing in the ECHL and AHL in recent before finally getting his first NHL opportunity on Monday. The Maple Leafs, who have been idle since Monday, had won five of six before dropping both ends of a home-and-home with the Boston Bruins.