Image Mandatory Credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

Leafs Nation, I don’t know where to begin. I had high hopes for this team heading into the season. If you go back and look at my season preview I spoke highly of the group, and thought this was the year they could maybe make a run for the Cup. Losing Marner certainly lowered the ceiling of this team in the regular season, but I thought the pieces they brought in could help them in the playoffs, when the style of play shifts. Given their success over the last decade in the regular season, I thought at the very least they would be playing hockey into late April. However, this year has been a complete disaster, and it is time to face the music.

Going into the Olympic Break, the Maple Leafs were on a three game win streak and holding onto their last bit of hope. Only 6 points behind the Boston Bruins who occupied the final playoff spot in the East, playoffs were certainly within reach.

Team Captain Auston Matthews wore the ‘C’ for the U.S. National Team, and recorded 7 points across 6 games, tied for 2nd in scoring for the Gold Medal winning squad. After the Gold Medal game, in a spirited post-game press conference with the Hughes brothers, his teammates had his back. The Golden goal scorer Jack Hughes said to the reporters “Doesn’t matter what anyone says now, Auston Matthews is a winner.”, Quinn Hughes chimed in as well, taking a shot at the Toronto media “That’s what the media in Toronto should be talking about, Auston Matthews led us to a championship”. Leafs fans hoped that the win would translate to their superstar coming back confident, ready to lead his team down the stretch.

The Leafs returned to action against the top team in the division, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Needing to keep their win streak alive coming out of the break, they lost. The 4-2 final suggests the game was closer than it actually was, as the Lightning were leading 3-0 in the third and Toronto didn’t score their first goal until there was 3:41 left in the final frame. Very little room for error if the team hoped to make the postseason. 

The very next night, the team travelled to face the Florida Panthers, a team in a similar spot as them, in the midst of their own disappointing season. Once again, the Leafs found themselves in a hole down 3-0, this time it was in the first period. A low point came when Morgan Rielly lost an edge, falling down and causing his D partner Brandon Carlo to trip over him while skating backwards defending the rush. The Panthers scored, and all of Leafs Nation sighed realizing in that moment ‘this team isn’t making the playoffs’. However the goal was challenged and overturned for the Panthers being offside on the entry. But it didn’t spark a comeback and the team lost 5-1.

Back in Toronto for their first home game out of the break, they faced the Ottawa Senators in a crucial game. They actually got off to a good start scoring the game’s first goal in the first three minutes. But once the Senators tied the game halfway through the first period, they took the life out of the building, and never gave it back. If it wasn’t the loss to Florida, this game was the final dagger. The Leafs were outshot 31-10 through the first two periods, and it was 5-2 going into the third, which would end up being scoreless, and the Leafs had lost three games in a row in regulation, to divisional opponents, being outscored 14-5.

Last night they managed to get a point against the Philadelphia Flyers, but their losing streak continued with a 3-2 shootout loss. In the four games since the Olympics, Matthews has 0 goals, and 3 assists. He hasn’t scored a goal for the Leafs since January 27, and instead of carrying the momentum from winning Gold back to the NHL, it is almost as if he feels as though he has accomplished more than enough this season, and is coasting until he can hit the golf course and go on vacation.

The writing is on the wall, and Toronto needs to sell at the deadline. This is a lost season, and they need to get assets in return for any pending free agents. Pending UFAs include Scott Laughton, Bobby McMann, Calle Jarnkrok, and Troy Stetcher. Matias Maccelli and Nicolas Robertson will be RFAs in July, and defencemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Carlo have garnered interest as well. While they don’t need to trade everyone and commit to a rebuild, they need to sell and retool the roster a bit at the deadline and throughout the offseason. This team does not work, they might make the playoffs in any given season but their ceiling is capped, they are not a Stanley Cup Contender.

Unfortunately for them, they don’t own their first round pick this season, or next season. As a result of going all in last year at the trade deadline they have given up future assets that they didn’t think they would need as early as the next season. At least this year’s pick is top 5 protected, and they can keep it should the pick end up at the top of the first round. But that would only push the pick down the road, and they wouldn’t own their picks in 2027 or 2028. Worst case scenario is the pick ends up in the 6-10 range and the Leafs have to give a top 10 pick to the Boston Bruins (wouldn’t be the first time).

After two seasons, Craig Berube could be on the hot seat, and it is sure to be a talking point in the Toronto media. Many outsiders (including Quinn Hughes) view the ‘Toronto sports media’ as a toxic environment. But my question is what have the Leafs done to earn grace? They were beloved in the early stages of this core, Matthews, Marner, and Nylander were gods in the city. A decade of playoff failures later, the fans are tired. The Raptors won the Championship in 2019, the Jays were one win away this past season, and they are praised and forever legends in Toronto. The scrutiny from the media will go away when the Leafs are winners, and it might be a bit longer before that is the case.