It may only be seven games into the 2025-26 NHL season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it sure feels like an eternity with all the struggles that they have had so far this year. Not only that, it hasn’t helped that the Maple Leafs had been missing some key players right from the start of the season, and now may be faced with some more injury woes as well to their defense corps.
No matter how you put it, Toronto sure doesn’t look like the dominant group that we witnessed during their 2024-25 campaign. So what has happened to the team? Let’s take a look at three things that have gone wrong for the Maple Leafs this season.
Offense sputtering
First and foremost, the Leafs offense hasn’t looked the same. Perhaps it is the result of new players trying to acclimatize to their new team, or more likely the team adapting to life without Mitch Marner. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t seem as potent or scary as it has been in previous years.
To date, the Maple Leafs have scored 24 goals in seven games, which comes out to about 3.4 goals per game. That production isn’t too shabby, except for the fact that four of their goals have been empty-netters and the fact that half of their goals total came from just two games, a 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadians and a 7-4 win over the Nashville Predators, who happens to be two of the lesser lights in the league.
On top of that, for a team that has been near the top of the league the past few years with the man advantage, the Leafs currently rank near the bottom of the NHL with just a 12.5% power play success rate. As a result, they couldn’t even use their special teams to help bail out their inept ability to score goals. Toronto will need to find a way to kickstart their offense soon before it becomes too late. Perhaps by putting their top lines in a blender like they have for the upcoming games is a good start.
Defense and goaltending have been adequate at best
If the offense hasn’t been firing, one would hope that at least the defense and goaltending is performing up to expectations. Unfortunately, both aspects haven’t been clicking for the Leafs as well. On the season, Toronto have given up 25 goals already, which puts them among the bottom six teams in the league. Losing also perhaps their best defensive defenseman in Chris Tanev now for an indefinite amount of time due to an upper-body injury could spell disaster for the Leafs in the long run.
As for hoping for goaltending to help bail out the failing Leafs defense? That hasn’t materialized either as so far, Anthony Stolarz has been a shell of his former dominant self from the 2024-25 season. In six starts this year, Stolarz has posted just a 2-3-1 record with a dismal 3.01 GAA and .894 save percentage. That is almost one full goal more than his stellar 2.14 GAA mark he registered last season for Toronto. He was often coming up with the big saves when the Leafs needed it last year, so the team certainly needs even more of that this year to have any success going forward.
Focus and mentality lacking
Most importantly, it appears as though the Leafs motivation and will to win this season has been severely lacking. What happened to the tight checking and structured playing in the offensive and defensive zones? What happened to generating elite scoring chances on a nightly basis? What about even the hustle and determination for puck battles and to chase down opponents? Let’s just say it has been a bit frustrating to watch.
With the lacklustre play, it has already led to a normally nonchalant Stolarz emotionally calling out his teammates with their recent play. In addition, Leafs coach Craig Berube has also vented his frustrations on his struggling top line as he was “getting tired of it”. Trying to light a fire to spark the team to get going can be a good thing. But for it to be happening just seven games into the NHL season means there must already be plenty of underlying issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible.
Overall, the Maple Leafs should feel fortunate to still be at 3-3-1 despite all of their issues. Nevertheless, they will need to rectify whatever problems are ailing them before the season spirals out of control.