Peter Horachek saw positives, but the Maple Leafs' first step under their new interim coach started with another loss.
The Capitals, backed by a record-tying performance by Braden Holtby in goal, beat Toronto 6-2 on Wednesday night.
"There were some good things," Horachek said. "We outchanced them, our possession numbers were better. We outshot them but we gave up some poor timely goals.
"We've got to eliminate those issues where we're making things happen to ourselves. But we did a lot of things that we wanted to do, and sometimes it's just going to be harder at first than we want it to be, to get back into the win column."
Via ESPN.com