TORONTO — How should we interpret Morgan Rielly’s fight of Kyle MacLean, a mostly meaningless tussle in a game of minimal consequence waged in a season lost?
Just because something feels too little too late does it make the gesture empty?
If most of the other sprinters have long breasted the finish line, should you pull up early or dig in even harder to save face?
If the first two bouquets you delivered got tossed in the compost, will she forgive you after a third?
No one absorbed more blame for the shame that took place here five days and one home date ago than Auston Matthews’ longest-serving teammate, the player we’ve been told loves being a Maple Leaf more than any of ’em.
In response to the lack of response, Rielly pointed a finger directly at himself.
He considered his not going after culprit Radko Gudas as another minus in a season brimming with them.
“It’s been a tough year for him. We all know that. He took that personally, against Matthews,” Craig Berube said Tuesday, following a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders.
“But it’s not just on Mo or this guy. It’s everybody. We all should’ve been in there right away. But I think they obviously learned from it, and it’s been a difference now.”
Reilly and the Maple Leafs are still playing guilty, desperate to prove something to each other and to their embarrassed coach and to their fed-up fan base and to a general manager that called up individuals to express his disappointment for letting their captain crumple in his season-ending knee injury without on-ice retribution.
They’re not what you think they are. They do care. They do regret it. Just watch.
So, the Leafs have ramped their PIM totals, launched more hits, and have now registered a fighting major in five straight games, something they haven’t done in well over a decade.
And while MacLean did make contact with Joseph Woll, we’re not talking Sam Bennett–level aggression here.
Yet Rielly immediately cross-checked and dropped gloves with his goalie’s offender.
“It’s not something I do a lot of. I’m not very good at it, but I think it’s important here down the stretch for our group,” Rielly explained of his first fight of the season.
Some who don’t share a room with Rielly may have rolled their eyes, but Woll loved it.
“That’s huge. You know, the last few games, just watching the amount of urgency to protect people out there has been awesome by our team. Mo’s not a guy that’s always looking to fight, and for him to jump in and do that means a lot. So, yeah, pretty awesome.”
That the Matthews-Gudas incident and its multi-pronged fallout is still a talking point nearly a week later is not a media contrivance. It’s a very real issue that has consumed every level of the Maple Leafs, from the players to the coaching staff to agents to GM Brad Treliving, who’s getting asked about it at the GM meeting down in Florida.
Connor McDavid chimed in from Edmonton.
George Parros, the mostly silent chief of player safety, was compelled to hold a press conference Tuesday, something he hasn’t done in years.
Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk, whose Ottawa Senators host the Leafs Saturday, voiced strong opinions regarding the Leafs’ non-response on their podcast this week.
Wild insider Michael Russo spoke to Minnesota/Team USA GM Bill Guerin about keeping his powder dry at the deadline and wanting to add a superstar forward. A photo of Matthews chatting with Quinn Hughes was selected for the story.
“Great players want to play with other great players,” Guerin said.
Criticism and speculation is hitting the Leafs from unanticipated angles, like hard lefts from a surprise southpaw.
“It’s something we’ve talked about almost daily,” Berube revealed. “About getting in there for each other, being physical and hard to play against.”
Playing connected and having your teammate’s back, these should be understood musts.
That the Leafs got caught sleeping on the job has been a splash of cold water.
“It definitely got guys’ attention. I mean, it got the hockey world’s attention, right? And we were disappointed in ourselves and how we handled that situation,” says Steven Lorentz, a Leafs fan since birth.
“You hear the outside noise. You know, we’d be lying if we said we don’t hear it. It’s not that we don’t pay attention to it. But we have to do a job, and we know what that is, and at times, we’re human. We get away from it.
“Sometimes it takes a talk from the coach, a little bit of yelling, and for the guys to kind of wake up and figure it out. And we had a lot of sit-down talks, and we had to look in the mirror a little bit to get to this spot that we’ve played these past few games.
“We’ve tried to do that consistently; it’s not a lack of effort. But you can tell we haven’t been like that the entire season. Hasn’t been consistent enough. And it’s been nice to see these past few games.”
Lorentz is encouraged by Rielly’s throwdown Tuesday and rookie Easton Cowan’s fighting Jackson LaCombe after Matthews hobbled off Thursday.
Young Cowan was the first Leaf to skate by his felled captain that night.
What ran through his 20-year-old mind?
“A whole lot of shock,” Cowan said. “I wish I did something, and that’s on me.
“I gotta step in there, stick up for my teammate, so I’ll learn from that for sure… I feel like we’re just kind of playing for him now — and playing with a lot of passion.”
“It brought a little bit more fire to our game,” agrees William Nylander, who regretted playing linesman instead of teammate as the Gudas hit unfolded before him.
Where was all this passion and fire hiding when the playoffs were still within grasp?
“It’s a good question,” Woll said.
Then he swiftly and smartly turned the focus to how much the Maple Leafs have improved in the stick-up-for-each-other department.
Nearly everyone with a keyboard or microphone access has chimed in on the hit at this point, but we have yet to hear from Matthews himself.
And what remains unknown is how the non-response will inform management’s roster construction for 2026-27 — and if this late, effortful surge of togetherness makes up enough for missing the moment.
Keep sending flowers until they have no choice but to accept your apology.
So, does Morgan Rielly feel pressure to fight now?
“Pressure is not the right word,” Reilly says. “But we’ve talked about it, and it’s at the front of our minds.
“There’s no pressure on anyone to go out and do something that they’re not comfortable doing. It’s just more a matter of playing hard.
“That mentality of just playing hard and sticking together needs to be a constant here for the last little bit.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• An audible cheer erupted in Scotiabank Arena when in-house voice Mike Ross announced Matthew Schaefer’s secondary assist on the second Islanders power-play goal.
The Hamilton, Ont., native estimated that he would have nearly 1,000 supporters in attendance for his first NHL homecoming game.
How many people did fellow Islanders first-overall pick and GTA product John Tavares have in the stands for his Toronto debut in 2009-10?
“I want to say 70, 80 maybe,” Tavares recalls. “I feel like that’s pretty high.”
Tavares scored 24 goals and 54 points in his freshman year; Schaefer is already up to 20 and 49, from the back end.
“He’s doing things only a handful of players have done. It’s extremely, extremely impressive,” Tavares says. “He’s not just a franchise player, but he’s certainly put himself in a generational type of a talent.”
Of all the Schaefer stans making the effort, the 18-year-old singled out his paternal grandmother, who attended in a wheelchair.
“This actually could be her first NHL game ever,” Schaefer said at morning skate. “She’s come to a couple minor hockey games growing up, so that will be pretty special for me and her tonight. It will be awesome.”
A “Let’s! Go! Schae-fer!” chant rose from one corner of the rink as the Isles coasted to victory and most of the Leafs fans had long filed out.
• Toronto signed NCAA free agent defenceman Vinny Borgesi, 22, to a two-year deal that kicks in next season. Northeastern University’s minute-munching captain will join the AHL Marlies for the remainder of this season.
The Hobey Baker Award nominee is a 5-foot-9, 185-pound puck mover who produced 20 points in 36 games this season.
Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe has raved about the Philadelphia native’s leadership, endurance (he regularly logs 26-plus minutes a night), and skating.
“He floats on the ice,” Keefe told College Hockey News.
• The last season Bo Groulx saw NHL action, with the 2023-24 Ducks, he managed two points (both assists) in 45 games.
Setting up Lorentz’s first goal of 2026, Groulx has already hit a new career high in points (four). Took him just five games with the Leafs.
“We need secondary scoring,” Berube said. “We need other people to chip in goals.”
• Oliver Ekman-Larsson missed Sunday’s win in Minnesota and Tuesday’s morning skate to be with wife Maja as she gave birth to the couple’s second child Monday. Another boy.
Dad was back in the lineup for this one, though, clocking a game-high 25:53.
“Not a lot of sleep, but it’s been great,” the defenceman says. “Wifey had been battling and had some tough nights, but she’s been unbelievable. So, just happy to be there and support her and do whatever I can to make it better. It’s an awesome feeling. We’re so happy and everybody’s doing good.”
No name for his second son yet. Ekman-Larsson says he’s taking suggestions via text.
Kevin suggested “Kevin.”
• First Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and now Aaron Judge.
Baseball stars walking into championship games wearing an Auston Matthews sweater is becoming a trend…
