KANATA, Ont. — Sometimes the end arrives with a bang.
Screaming and fighting. Hung heads and blank stares. Spilled beer and sweaters thrown in disgust.
A frenzied and dramatic winner-take-all exclamation point on an eight-month-long journey.
Edge-of-your-seat, analyze-to-death stuff.
That’s how Toronto Maple Leafs seasons used to finish.
Not this one.
Nah, the final page of the 2025-26 Leafs’ season — a 3-1 loss to the surging and playoff-bound Ottawa Senators on a rainy Wednesday in Kanata, Ont. — was turned quietly and without emotion. Like the acknowledgments at the end of a tragic novel.
The final chapter of this sad tale was written weeks ago.
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And so, the Maple Leafs, coasting through a seventh consecutive loss with preseason-like electricity, skated through the motions at the Canadian Tire Centre. They got outshot (38-20) for the 17th time in their final 19 games.
James Reimer, the goaltender who tried out for the Leafs in camp only to land a gig a few hours east, got the win.
Ottawa’s organist cued up the locals for a few jolly but half-hearted choruses of “Leafs suck!” A “Matthews leaving!” chant burst out late from the upper bowl.
Seats went unfilled.
One man wearing a blue-and-white replica sweater and sitting front row pressed a handmade FIRE BERUBE placard against the glass in Toronto’s end throughout warmup and at various stoppages.
Eventually, that fan lost interest too.
It was the type of uninspired performance that would make Rick Bowness blow a lid.
Here? Now?
It’s shrugs and acceptance and how soon can we get outta town?
The Maple Leafs will clean out their lockers first thing Thursday morning, speak a few final clichés, then scatter for summer.
“You want to be going to the playoffs,” Toronto defenceman Simon Benoit said. “It feels like s— to be honest.”
The most disappointing season in the franchise’s 109-year history ends with a lottery-odds-boosting seven-game losing skid. Toronto went 0-for-April, putting a stamp on its worst year-over-year decline ever.
From 108 points and its lone regular-season Atlantic crown to 78 points and last in division. From a plus-37 goal differential to a minus-46, worst in the East. A 30-point swing in the standings and an 83-goal swing on the scoreboard.
“Tough finish, but I guess kinda relieved a little bit,” Nick Robertson said. “You’re battling a lot of thoughts, a lot of emotions.”
Why did it all go so wrong?
“There’s a lot of reasons,” Robertson said. “Lack of execution, buy-in, emotion on everyone’s part, including myself. You know, it’s hard. It’s unfortunate how it ended.”
Fans will cling to hope that the Maple Leafs, locking up fifth-last place in the NHL, won’t get leaped in May’s draft lottery by one of the six teams below them in the reverse standings. And maybe, just maybe, Toronto wins the lottery outright. The odds of that are 8.5 per cent.
Heck, the Leafs did precisely that in their last lost season, rewarded handsomely for their pain in 2016.
No team gave up more shots this season than Toronto (2,660). No franchise did less to stop the bleeding or act alarmed when the “check engine” light blinked bright orange.
This 18-wheeler didn’t soar off the cliff in a blaze of Thelma & Louise glory. It sputtered out of gas 10 miles from the nearest station, and everyone inside figured, ah, well, might as well catch a nap.
“It’s a disappointing season, definitely,” said Craig Berube, who outlasted GM Brad Treliving and has two more years on his contract with MLSE. “I’m not going to express all my opinions to everybody. I’m going to keep that inside.”
Quietly swallow the bitter pill and hope, somehow, the group learns something and returns… different. Motivated.
Humbled and hungry.
“It’s tough ending the season like this,” said William Nylander, who registered his sixth 30-goal campaign. “I haven’t been in this position. So, I mean, just go into the summer and be ready to have a big season next year.”
Troy Stecher is hopeful this is a one-off, an ugly blip caused by “a magnitude” of different reasons.
“That’s something the organization will dissect amongst the players and the staff however they go about it,” Stecher said. “But we’re definitely aware as players what went wrong within the room.
“We’ll just probably keep that private for the organization.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• At 35, John Tavares is both the oldest Maple Leaf and the only one to play all 82 games this season, something he hasn’t done since his inaugural campaign for Toronto back in 2018-19.
“That’s what you work all off-season for. That’s what you wait every day for is the ability to wake up and get to go compete and play in this league,” Tavares said.
Since Matthews went down to injury, Tavares slid in seamlessly to the dual role of captain and No. 1 centre, racking up nine goals and 19 points in 17 games while facing reporters daily and saying the right things.
A career-low minus-28 rating is tough to wear, but Tavares generating his eighth 30-goal and ninth 70-point season for $4.4 million makes him the best value on the entire roster.
• The Maple Leafs are light on unrestricted free agents.
Calle Järnkrok sat out Wednesday due to injury and has completed all four years of his $8.4-million contract in Toronto. Will another NHL team offer the 34-year-old a one-year deal for cheap? Or will Järnkrok keep his career going back home in Sweden?
Waiver-scoop Stecher, 32, said he has loved being a Maple Leaf and is hoping to re-sign in Toronto. But it’s tough for him to speculate on his future with no GM in place yet.
If Stecher does hit the open market on July 1, what’s his priority?
“A job,” he smiles.
Kidding not kidding.
“Guy like me, fighting his way off the league-minimum line,” he says, “I’ve battled to stay in the league.”
• Popular take: Nursing a bad knee and lobbed out in trade discussions, Matthew Knies has endured a setback season.
Counterpoint: Knies lost Mitch Marner and, later, Auston Matthews off his line yet still quietly produced more eight more points this season (66) than in his much-celebrated sophomore campaign (58).
“It’s been a grind for him all year,” Berube says.
• Rough ending for the Anthony Stolarz–Joseph Woll tandem that was so stellar last season.
Stolarz suffered yet another lower-body, non-contact injury in his final start, one that will impact his off-season training.
Since Jan. 15, Woll went a disturbing 4-12-5 with an .883 save percentage, albeit playing behind a defensively negligent team.
“Overworked,” Berube believes. “Faced a lot of rubber. Too much.”
Woll joined the team in mid-November and appeared in 39 games, five more than Stolarz but five below his own career high.
Can Woll carry a true starter’s pace?
“There’s a few things he probably has to think about and change a little bit to handle that type of load. It’s a lot,” Berube says. “Look at the goalies in the league. There’s only a handful of guys that play 50 or more games in a season.”
This season there were 19. Last season there were 22. Workhorses are on the decline.
• Yes, Berube saw Rick Bowness’s epic rant after the Columbus Blue Jackets phoned in Game 82.
“I’m not in Bones’ head. But for me, it’s like, losing has to hurt. It’s got to be vocalized in the room by your players,” Berube said. “Things have to be said in a not-so-nice manner. And when that happens in a locker room enough times, things are bound to change. You got to challenge each other. He’s not wrong.”
Do the Maple Leafs have a similar issue with not hating to lose?
“I’m not getting into that stuff,” Berube replied.
