TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs have won a hockey game.
There was a time not long ago when that was hardly news. But after a miserable stretch that’s seen the Maple Leafs drop eight straight games, seen them lose 16 of their past 20, seen their playoff hopes dwindle to a near impossibility, this was water in the desert. This was a pulse beating through the silence, a much-needed sign of life for a fanbase starved for some semblance of joy from their club.
Still, in keeping with this disastrous season, that joy could only arrive dipped in pain. And Thursday night, against the Anaheim Ducks, more pain came for these Leafs — this time in the form of a brutal knee-on-knee collision that left Auston Matthews crumpled on the ice in the second period, that eventually sent the captain down the tunnel and out of this lineup for the foreseeable future.
“I didn’t like it,” John Tavares said of the collision after the dust settled on a 6-4 Maple Leafs win. “He clips him pretty good. I thought it was dirty. … I’d like to think the league’s going to look at it. It’s out of my hands. Hopefully the right thing’s done.”
The culprit was a villain all-too-familiar to Canadian hockey fans: Radko Gudas, whose penchant for on-ice recklessness reared its head as recently as a month ago, at the Olympic Games, when the defenceman knocked Sidney Crosby out of the tournament.
“You know the player. I feel like he’s done that quite often,” Matthew Knies said of the polarizing Ducks captain. “I think it should be looked at. I mean, it’s our best player going down.”
“It’s a dirty play,” William Nylander added. “I think he’s done a few of those before.”
It was a particularly unfortunate turn of events for Matthews, who only five minutes earlier had wired home a one-timer and snapped a goalless drought that had dragged on for 12 games and nearly two months.
The Ducks allowed him little time to celebrate his return to form. With just over four minutes remaining in the middle frame, Gudas got to his feet after burying rookie Easton Cowan in the corner of Anaheim’s zone, and sprinted over to Matthews as the captain received a pass from Nylander in the slot. Matthews cut right. Gudas threw out his left knee and caught Matthews’ right leg, the defenceman clearly extending himself to take No. 34 out.
Matthews dropped to the ice in pain and remained down for some time, his head in his hands, before ultimately being helped off the ice and down the tunnel. Berube offered no update on the centreman post-game, but noted Matthews did not go to the hospital Thursday, and would be evaluated Friday morning.
In the club’s locker room, after the fans had filtered out of the building, the Maple Leafs’ veterans lamented the lack of response from their group in the wake of the hit, as their captain lay on the ice in agony. There was no crowd formed around Gudas, no gloves dropped as the defender was escorted to the box, no chaos unleashed on the offender whatsoever.
“It’s on me for not responding earlier to Gudas, being there,” Rielly said. “It’s a dirty hit. I didn’t understand how bad he got him in the moment. But I take full responsibility for not being the first one in there, or being in there quicker to respond. … Ultimately, when your captain goes down like that on a dirty play, you have to respond as a group. I take responsibility for not being the first one in there after the hit.”
Nylander echoed the sentiment.
“I didn’t really see what happened, I didn’t know the severity of it. I should’ve probably gone in there,” he said. “In the situation, at the time, I didn’t really understand until 15 seconds later that it was more than what I thought it was. I should’ve jumped in there.”
There was a conversation had in that locker room in the second intermission. One that head coach Craig Berube wasn’t willing to share specifics about. But it’s clear what was said — that no one felt compelled to hold Gudas accountable in the moment, to not only defend their teammate but also simply show some fight as their captain lay on the ice, was inexcusable.
So, it was put to the group: Come out in the third and redeem yourselves. Show some fire.
“Just push back. Fight back,” Knies said of that intermission message. “We talked. Obviously we wanted to get some licks on their top players. You know, it’s frustrating seeing our best player go down like that. But we stayed on course and didn’t really do anything too stupid.
“There were a lot of guys in here upset about what happened. I think we did a good job responding to that in the third period, much better than we did at the time of the play.”
They no doubt showed something in the final frame.
Thirty seconds into the period, Nylander potted Toronto’s third power-play goal of the night, restoring the home side’s lead. Bo Groulx added a short-handed tally soon after, scoring his first Maple Leafs goal in his second Maple Leafs game — his first NHL goal at all since November 2021, the last one scored for these very Ducks. Knies capped off the offensive performance with an empty-netter, completing a four-point night.
But it was away from the scoresheet that the club found redemption in their coach’s eyes — Rielly got into it with Jeffrey Viel, Domi went after Beckett Sennecke, rookie Easton Cowan dropped the gloves with Jackson LaCombe.
“Obviously we should’ve had four guys in there doing something about it. It didn’t happen then. But I thought we responded in the third,” Berube said late Thursday night. The coach was particularly impressed with young Cowan getting into the mix.
“It was great. It was a lot about what we talked about. I thought everybody went out and did what we asked in the third period — including Cowboy, getting involved, going after one of their best players.”
More than anything else, though, for Berube, the win was something of an indictment of the approach this group has taken on too many nights this season, of the listless manner in which they’ve floated through this disappointing season. On this night, his Leafs showed they have the capacity for something more, even if it’s come far too late.
“It shows that you need passion and emotion in the game to be successful,” Berube said of this win, the club’s first since early February. “It really does. We all know that. They played with passion and emotion in the third period.”
It will matter little in terms of where these Leafs go this season, Toronto is still sitting 11 points out of the playoffs after claiming these two points. For those in the room, who have 16 games still to play out on this season, the goal moving forward is simple.
“We have to build off it,” Rielly said. “I thought there were some pretty good things tonight — obviously the power play had a big impact on the game. Obviously we got the win, which was important. So, you know — onward. We have to build.”
