For a brief moment, the Maple Leafs showed they actually cared about salvaging what they could of this season. It seemed like they had taken Craig Berube's last postgame comments to heart. But it didn't work out quite as planned.
On Monday night, the Leafs played a pretty even game against an equally battered team in the Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs hung tough for two and a half periods until the Flyers took a late lead.
The game seemed like a replay of everything we’ve seen this season. But a power play goal by William Nylander tied the game. In overtime, the Leafs had their chances but ultimately lost in the shootout.
Despite the loss, the Leafs showed some guts. They didn’t fold down the stretch and managed a point. Unfortunately, that point won’t go very far in the standings. The Leafs are treading water rapidly and look to be inevitably sinking.
What’s worse, the paper bags are already out in the stands. The gutsy third-period didn’t really mean much to the fan base. Had the Leafs rallied to win, that might have changed the perception of this team somewhat. But the fact of the matter is that Monday night’s loss was the story of this season. The Leafs tried to cruise through two periods, fell behind, and then made one frantic push in the final minutes of the game.
Why can’t the Leafs just push hard for 60 minutes?
That’s something we might never really know.
Maple Leafs have risible playoff odds
The loss to the Flyers lowered the Maple Leafs’ odds of making the postseason even further. Moneypuck shows Toronto has a 0.9% chance of making the playoffs.
Mathematically, it’s likelier to get hit by lightning than the Leafs making the playoffs. All right, so there’s a 1 in 15,300 chance of getting hit by lightning in a person’s lifetime. But the outrageous comparison shows just how minuscule the Leafs’ chances are of making it to the postseason.
What this situation shows is that the remainder of this season should focus on getting things right. A good final stretch of the season could help the club set the groundwork for a resurgent campaign next year.
A few key additions and a solid game plan moving forward could be everything the Maple Leafs need to right the ship in 2026-27. Perhaps that oversimplifies things. But an adage in sports is getting back to basics. Whenever a team or player struggles, the best thing to do is get back to fundamentals.
It’s doing the little things right, consistently, that lead to bigger and better things. That’s what the Maple Leafs need to focus on for the rest of this year.
While there may not be a miraculous 20-game winning streak on the horizon, at least salvaging confidence could be the precursor to a huge season next year.