Music: {allcanada} Toronto (9-12-4) at Washington (18-8-2)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

{allcanada} Toronto (9-12-4) at Washington (18-8-2)

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Game info: 7:00 pm EST Mon Dec 6, 2010
TV: RSNO, CSW

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a very hard time on the road, and things aren't about to get any easier against one of the league's best home teams.

Looking to avoid matching their longest single-season road losing streak in nearly 14 years, the Maple Leafs will also try to hand the Washington Capitals a third straight loss Monday night.

Since winning its first two road games, Toronto has gone 0-7-1 in its last eight away from Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs have scored one goal or less six times during that slide while getting outscored 27-8.

Toronto (9-12-4) hopes to avoid its first nine-game road losing streak since Nov. 7-Dec. 6, 1996, but that won't be easy against a Washington team that is an Eastern Conference-best 12-2-1 at home.

In danger of losing their fifth straight overall, the Leafs got the tying goal from Kris Versteeg (notes) with 42 seconds left in regulation before Phil Kessel (notes) scored the winning goal in a 3-2 shootout victory over Boston on Saturday night.

"I'll take it," said Kessel. "That's a big one for us, a character win. Hopefully, we can get rolling now."

Jean-Sebastien Giguere (notes) made 25 saves and could start again Monday after Jonas Gustavsson (notes) was ineffective in Thursday's 5-0 loss to Edmonton.

"It's good to get the win, it shows that we can beat some good teams," said Giguere, who is 3-3-1 with a 2.17 GAA and two shutouts against the Capitals. "Boston is a really good team, especially on the road, but we need to put this in the bank and move on."

Poor special teams play on the road has been a major problem for the Leafs, who rank among the worst in the league with a 6.7 power-play percentage. They're last in the NHL with a 64.7 penalty-kill percentage away from home.

The Capitals (18-8-2) will try to avoid matching their longest losing streak of the season following losses to Dallas and Atlanta. Alex Ovechkin (notes) ended his career high-tying nine-game goal-scoring drought in Saturday night's 3-1 loss to the Thrashers.

Despite registering a season-best 46 shots on goal - 13 more than Atlanta - the Capitals were held to one goal for the second consecutive game, and coach Bruce Boudreau would like to see a more aggressive approach out of his players.

"You look at our team and we haven't scored a lot of goals lately," he said. "I think it's the lack of commitment to paying the price to score. We're all wanting to score, but we're staying on the perimeter hoping to get the puck rather than being the guy who's going to get the puck."

While Ovechkin has struggled to score of late, he's been distributing the puck to his teammates, collecting eight assists in his last eight games. The superstar forward should be happy to see the Leafs, whom he has seven goals and 11 assists against during a seven-game point streak.

Alex Semin has also fared well against Toronto with four goals and six assists in a six-game streak.

Ovechkin had a pair of assists in a 5-4 shootout win over the Leafs on Nov. 3.

Toronto is 0-2-1 in its last three visits to the Verizon Center, allowing 17 goals.