Circle this one.
If all the Toronto Maple Leafs’ positive self-talk of unwilting belief and sticking to the process bears fruit, if great adversity indeed leads to a great comeback, well, they’ll be pointing to the final game of 2025 as the road map leading to a trip to the 2026 playoffs.
No Auston Matthews? No William Nylander? No Chris Tanev? No Dakota Joshua?
No worries.
The Leafs only submitted their most complete and well-rounded — simply, their best — victory of the season to date.
The type of effort that empowers and enthuses, that emboldens GM Brad Treliving for not waving the white flag.
“All over the ice, I thought we were skating, playing physical,” Matthew Knies told reporters in the bowels of Scotiabank Arena, shortly after slamming an empty-net exclamation mark on a 4-0 blanking of the New Jersey Devils.
“We found our groove.”
Fans noticed.
The home crowd serenaded the hard work with organic “Go! Leafs! Go!” chants, a song seldom belted out with such volume in this town this winter.
“Feels awesome,” exclaimed goaltender Joseph Woll, whose 33-save effort resulted in his first blank sheet of the season.
Despite (or a result of?) missing more than $40 million worth of cap salary in their lineup, the Maple Leafs intensified their focus, embraced their depth, and thrived Tuesday at even-strength and both special teams.
It was a group assignment, and Craig Berube’s bunch passed with flying colours.
“The team game can take care of these injuries and get you through,” Berube said. “You can’t feel sorry for yourself.”
Already humming, secondary scorers like Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson rose to the occasion with a team-high six shots and team-high two assists, respectively. They were buzzing in the O-zone and salivating over those hard-to-earn power-play shifts.
Robertson was that rare Leaf who looked engaged and effective, even during the club’s four-game losing skid before the holidays. With his ice time bumped, he drew a penalty, hung a couple points, and flexed his confidence by knocking six-foot-four, 225-pound defenceman Brenden Dillon on his keister.
Centre Scott Laughton was integral to a 3-for-3 penalty kill and swiped 75 per cent of his draws, with Matthews unavailable.
The oft-scratched Calle Järnkrok’s insurance snipe snapped a 13-game point drought for the veteran.
The blueline locked in, the goalie was so stellar that game ops cued up Oasis’s “Wonderwall” after the second-period buzzer sounded, and even AHL callup Jacob Quillan (plus-1) helped generate a goal with a hard forecheck.
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Toronto found itself in an all-hands-on-deck situation, and the boys were dealing.
OK, so lemme get this straight: The Leafs are benefitting from a rash of injuries to their high-profile players?
“Sometimes that works in your favour. Guys gain confidence because they’re playing a bigger role and kinda bring some life to the group. You try to find the positives in a tough situation,” a clairvoyant Troy Stecher said before puck drop.
“In the long run, this is gonna be great. It prepares you for those tough moments.”
“You never know, later in the year, when guys are going to have to fill those roles or play more minutes,” McMann echoed. “To have more guys better prepared for each situation, hopefully, will serve us well for later in the season.”
The present-day Leafs will charge into Thursday’s showdown with Canada’s other fading contender, the Winnipeg Jets, on a four-game point streak.
Hope is that news on Tanev’s lower-body injury will be sunnier than expected, that Matthews’ foot is fit for skating at Wednesday’s practice, and that Nylander’s day-to-day doesn’t balloon into week-to-week.
If not?
Well, the Maple Leafs will need to ring in 2026 the way they exited 2025.
“Everybody contributing. Everybody was doing their job. All around, pretty solid hockey by everybody,” Berube said.
“Everybody bought in.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• Always telling to see who gets a letter when one of the captains can’t go.
With both Matthews and Nylander (often the alternate to the alternate) sidelined, defenceman Jake McCabe sported an “A” — an acknowledgment of the heft his voice wields in that room.
McCabe led all Leafs in ice time Tuesday (23:46), blocked eight shots, and was essential to a perfect PK performance.
McCabe’s plus-16 rating in December ranks second-best leaguewide (to Nathan MacKinnon’s plus-18).
• Did not have Nico Hischier dropping the gloves with Knies on the ol’ bingo card.
Hischier’s only other NHL fight took place more than five years ago, against Mikael Granlund.
“Go out and score how many seconds later?” Woll said. Thirteen. “Speaks for itself.”
• The Steve Sullivan power-play just keeps rollin’ on, like deodorant.
The Leafs improved to 4-for-8 since their new assistant took the reins and registered a whopping nine shots on their first two power-plays — sans PP staples Matthews and Nylander, no less. (This doesn’t include Nicolas Roy’s goal, which was scored just as a power-play expired but before the penalized Arseny Gritsyuk could rejoin play.)
Increased urgency has led to a season-high three-game streak with goals on the man-advantage.
“It’s huge,” McMann said. “We love to see the power-play clickin’.”
• Former power-play coach Marc Savard changed his profile pic not once but twice Monday…
• Tuesday marked the first Maple Leafs game that did not feature Matthews, Nylander, or Mitch Marner in the lineup since Feb. 27, 2016. And the first without Matthews and Nylander since April 15, 2021.
