WASHINGTON (AP) ― James van Riemsdyk took advantage of the latest Washington Capitals calamity, swooping in when a defenseman and goaltender couldn’t decide who was going to play the puck.
Van Riemsdyk scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season Tuesday night, while Korbinian Holzer scored on just the fourth shot of his NHL career to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-2 victory over a mistake-prone Capitals team that already sounds like a broken record.
“You run out of cliches to say to the guys, obviously,” Washington coach Adam Oates said.
The Capitals have lost eight of 10 to start the season and sit at the bottom of the NHL standings, so the last thing they need is the kind of embarrassing miscommunication that put them in a 1-0 hole in the first period.
Goalie Michal Neuvirth and defenseman Tom Poti both went behind the net for the puck ― and neither ended up with it.
“I saw them kind of looking at each other, like, ‘Who was going to take the puck?’” Van Riemsdyk said. “And it was just sitting there, so I went to go grab it and was able to just kind of wrap it in.”
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