In Toronto, the Maple Leafs’ William Nylander, Michael Bunting, and Ilya Mikheyev each hit for a pair of goals in a 7-3 thumping of the Washington Capitals on Thursday night. 
“It felt good,” Bunting said. “Obviously I was a little dry there for a little bit, but that’s hockey. There’s ups and downs and you can’t get too low on the lows. It felt good to get one in, but more importantly [Matthews] got his 100th point there, so that was a pretty special moment for the whole team.
“Anybody who says (the goal drought) isn’t (weighing on you) is probably lying, so obviously it was in my mind a little bit, but we were winning and my line was producing and we were going really well, so I couldn’t let that get in my way of playing my game.”
Jack Campbell made 22 saves in the Maple Leafs win.
John Carlson, Tom Wilson and Nic Dowd were the Washington strikers.
“That’s big (balanced scoring),” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “For quite a while, almost everything was happening off [Matthews and Marner]. Those guys, their confidence is really high but we had a number of other guys waiting to break out and wanting to contribute and needing to contribute because the reality is there’s going to be times when those guys (Matthews and Marner), for whatever reason, the puck is not going to go in the net. We need to have other guys feeling good about their game, confident in their ability to score.”
The Capitals dropped to 41-23-10.
“From the start there, they were coming out harder,” Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom said. “They were first on pucks and we weren’t really there, I think. It’s one of those games you want to forget.”
Auston Matthews picked up an assist for his 100th point of the season.
“It’s humbling,” Matthews said. “I mean I feel like I just keep repeating myself but obviously to be mentioned with those two guys, what they were able to do for this team and this city and kind of paving the way for guys like myself and the guys that are here now. It’s a big honor but it didn’t happen without the guys on this team and the guys I play with every single night. It’s certainly not about me, I think it’s a team accomplishment and obviously tonight was a big bounce-back win for us against a really good team.”
Toronto’s Ilya Lyubushkin added a single marker in the win.
“The guys were pumped, yeah, the guys were excited, the fans were excited,” Keefe said. “That was pretty cool for him. He’s played really well for us. His family has just come into Toronto, they’d been in Arizona for a long time and they just got back here, it was the second game they’d been here. For him to score tonight and continue to play well, we’re happy for him.”
Ilya Samsonov got the start for the Caps, but was given the hook after yielding four goals into the middle frame. He made 15 saves.
Vitek Vanecek made 10 saves in a mop up role.
“In the first, we didn’t do a good enough job of getting back and supporting each other, all five guys,” Dowd said. “Toronto did a good job of getting pucks in early and then maintaining a forecheck, and that’s where their chances and their goals came from, for the most part.”
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