{"id":548820,"date":"2026-04-09T15:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548820\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:33:17","slug":"2-takeaways-from-the-maple-leafs-4-0-loss-to-the-capitals-the-hockey-writers-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548820\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Takeaways From the Maple Leafs’ 4-0 Loss to the Capitals – The Hockey Writers – Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> suffered a tough 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals<\/a> last night, but the score almost felt secondary by the end of it. Unfortunately, they didn\u2019t get a shootout, they lost three players to injuries and looked rather lifeless.<\/p>\n

With the regular season winding down, there are only four games left. At this point, it seems like everyone is just waiting for the season to end to finally get the nightmare over with. Let\u2019s take a look at a few takeaways from last night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Injuries Bug Strikes Again<\/p>\n

The biggest story from this one wasn\u2019t the loss. It was what happened to the roster. The Maple Leafs saw three players leave the game with injuries<\/a>, and by the final buzzer, the bench not only looked depleted, but pretty thin.<\/p>\n

Related: Maple Leafs Lose Stolarz, Joshua & Carlo in Loss to Capitals<\/a><\/p>\n

First, there was Anthony Stolarz<\/a>. The most concerning moment came just two minutes into the first period. Stolarz stretched out for a save and immediately went down in clear pain. He needed help getting off the ice, and it looked like a serious lower-body injury. Joseph Woll<\/a> came in to finish the game, and while Craig Berube didn\u2019t officially rule Stolarz out for the season afterward, he did say he will need imaging. The team has already called up Artur Akhtyamov ahead of tonight\u2019s game against the New York Islanders and announced that he will get his first NHL start<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyToronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz is escorted off the ice after an apparent injury against the Washington Capitals (Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Then there was Brandon Carlo<\/a>, who played just over 12 minutes before leaving with a lower-body injury. Berube confirmed postgame that Carlo won\u2019t be available against the Islanders. To round out a rough night, Dakota Joshua<\/a> suffered an upper-body injury after taking a hit<\/a> from former Maple Leaf Rasmus Sandin and didn\u2019t return. Like Carlo, he has already been ruled out for Thursday\u2019s game. The only silver lining with all these injuries is it gives a chance for AHL players to get called up and make their NHL debut.<\/p>\n

Ovi\u2019s Last Game in Toronto?<\/p>\n

While the Capitals picked up a big win to stay in the playoff race, there was a different kind of feeling in the building. Alex Ovechkin<\/a>, who has been notorious for scoring against the Maple Leafs over his career, revealed yesterday to the media<\/a> that he is going to take time this summer to decide what comes next, which added a different feel heading into the game. Is that the last time that he is going to play in Toronto in his legendary career?<\/p>\n

Related: How the Maple Leafs Should Navigate Their Biggest Offseason Yet<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t score, but you still noticed him. You always do. And if this ends up being his last game at Scotiabank Arena, it felt like one of those quiet reminders of just how long he\u2019s been doing this, and how rare it is to watch someone do what he did for the last two decades.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next for the Maple Leafs?<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs are right back at it tonight in New York against the Islanders. The team is going to look drastically different. Stolarz, Carlo, and Joshua have all been ruled out. The expectation is that Luke Haymes, William Villeneuve and Akhtyamov could all draw into the lineup and make their respective debuts or starts.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a tough 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals last night, but the score…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[426,54,1529,8080,5,20,5172,4,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-548820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-alex-ovechkin","9":"tag-anthony-stolarz","10":"tag-brandon-carlo","11":"tag-dakota-joshua","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-maple-leafs","14":"tag-mapleleafs","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-toronto","17":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","18":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116375485975421650","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}