TORONTO — William Nylander crossed his arms and slumped a little lower than usual as he leaned back against the front of the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room.
Gone was the slightly carefree approach that came after a three-game losing streak earlier this season, when Nylander stood in the same place and declared “It’s only been three games, so what’s the big deal, really?”
In its place was a Nylander we haven’t seen very much — if at all — this season: Downtrodden. Disgruntled.
“We’re just not playing to our level right now,” Nylander said.
Nylander’s Maple Leafs are in a bad way, losing 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators after being out-played Saturday night. The energy and blend of physicality and scoring that was the Leafs’ hallmark earlier this season looked like a thing of the past against the Senators. And the Leafs winger wasn’t alone in his bewilderment. In his first season in Toronto, Craig Berube has always presented the glass to be decidedly half-full in front of the cameras.
He couldn’t offer as rosy an outlook after the loss.
“They need to make their mind up in the room as to the importance of the start of the game and 60 minutes of urgency, details, doing things right, and playing our game,” a particularly tired-sounding Berube said postgame.
One loss to a division rival, or even getting swept in the season series as they have been by Ottawa this season, is forgivable. But the Leafs are now mired in their worst stretch of the season, having lost five of six games. Their lone win came in a shootout after blowing a three-goal lead.
Don’t look now, but the Leafs now find themselves out of home ice advantage in the Atlantic Division playoff picture. The Tampa Bay Lightning have overtaken them for second place by virtue of the tiebreaker. And the Senators are now just four points back of the Leafs for third place in the division.
It’s a position that certainly feels hard to fathom, given the five-game win streak the Leafs rattled off after the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
But the Leafs’ inability to dominate games goes back further. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Leafs have owned the majority of the five-on-five expected goals in just two of their last 15 games: in a spirited game at five-on-five against the Florida Panthers on March 13 and a win over the lowly Chicago Blackhawks on February 23.
The numbers alone only highlight how concerning their recent play has been. Game after game they’ve failed to play to their potential and structure. They’ve failed to generate sufficient offence for a team loaded with offensive weapons. Against teams fighting for their playoff lives or toward the top of their division, the Leafs have lacked the pace they’ll need to win playoff games in a few weeks.
They simply haven’t looked up to the challenge that the postseason will bring.
And for the first time all season, the Leafs looked and sounded postgame like a team out of immediate answers.
“The details in our game haven’t quite been there,” Auston Matthews said of the Leafs’ recent stretch. “It’s on us to figure that out and to be better. We’ve got to get it through our head that all these games, especially with some of the teams we’re playing, are going to be playoff-like games.”
That lack of urgency was front and centre against the Senators.
“I am concerned, for sure,” Berube said of the team’s start. “It is an attitude that we have to have from the start of the game.”
Breakout after breakout was stifled by a relentless and disciplined visiting team. When the Leafs did generate sustained possession in the offensive zone, quality chances were rare. The Senators did well to cut off lanes, get their sticks in the way of shots and not buckle in the face of the Leafs’ shooters.
“They’re playing good on both sides of the puck, I think that’s what’s important,” Nylander said of the Senators in an assessment that feels at least a little pointed at his own team’s shortcomings.
Anthony Stolarz’s assessment was far more direct.
“They throw pucks to the net and turn chicken s— into chicken soup,” the Leafs goalie said of the Senators.
The Leafs came into this game with a revamped forward group. Berube split up Matthews and Mitch Marner, moving Max Domi to the top line with Matthews and Matthew Knies.
Marner joined John Tavares and Bobby McMann. Nylander joined Scott Laughton and Calle Järnkrok.
But the Leafs had just two goals through two periods to show for it.
It’s not the sole reason the Leafs have stumbled, but their inability to create offence should be worrisome to Berube.
They’ve scored just two goals each in four of their last six games. Yes, Nylander and Matthews scored against the Senators. For a team that will likely go as far into the postseason as their stars will take them, that’s a plus.
But there still hasn’t been the kind of offence from the Leafs from top to bottom over the last six games that could push them over the top in playoff games.
Come the third period, Berube fired up the blender once again, moving Marner beside Laughton and Nylander and then tossing Nick Robertson, who moved well all game, up to the de facto third line with McMann and Tavares.
The result?
No pucks found their way past Senators goalie Linus Ullmark.
Zoom out and many of the worst fears around this team have emerged in a very real way as of late.
Lack of secondary scoring? McMann doesn’t have a goal in his last 12 games. No goals have come off Robertson and Knies’ sticks over the Leafs’ last five games.
Impact of the team’s trade deadline acquisitions? Laughton went to the Leafs’ dressing room in some distress after the officiating crew missed Senators defenceman Travis Hamonic cross-checking Laughton. His second-period fight against Senators forward Ridley Greig didn’t give his team any juice. He deserves time to find his game in Toronto, but early returns aren’t promising.
Scott Laughton and Ridly Greig drop the mitts 👊 pic.twitter.com/R95gVp6RAt
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 16, 2025
And while this isn’t related to the team’s scoring concerns, the Leafs’ goaltending simply hasn’t looked its best as of late. Shots that both Stolarz and Joseph Woll stopped earlier in the season have been getting past them. And over their last six games, neither Stolarz nor Woll can boast a save percentage over .900.
It’s not going to get any easier: the Leafs’ next three games are against two teams fighting for their playoff lives (The Calgary Flames and the New York Rangers) and another, the Colorado Avalanche, that thoroughly dominated the Leafs a week ago.
See how quickly the Leafs’ recent past and their near future embodies the “Not Great Bob” gif?
So what comes next?
Berube looks open for moving his puzzle pieces around up top. It wouldn’t be surprising if we see further changes to his forward lines at the next practice or morning skate. Berube needs to find combinations that can contribute at both ends of the ice. Two different forward lines were on the ice for the Senators’ two five-on-five goals. No line, either before or after the changes that came during Saturday’s morning skate, has looked particularly reliable and efficient in this skid.
“I think it’s important for us to take a look in the mirror and hit the reset button,” Matthews said.
You get the sense that if players are looking to hit the reset button, that could come with lines and defence pairs possibly reset as well.
Mixing things up again isn’t the worst idea: important additions and the departure of two roster players means this team doesn’t have a blank slate, but there’s still justifiable room for experimentation.
Beyond lines, there were continued hints from players and coaches that a mentality change is warranted too. That’s tough to quantify, sure. But it’s not without merit. Because the Leafs’ poor play even brought one of Berube’s oft-used words heading into the season out of the coach postgame.
“There are certain stretches you go through where it’s not there,” Berube said. “You just keep battling as a coach. You have to hold your players accountable to it, and they have to hold themselves accountable to it.”
If there was ever time for Berube to maintain accountability within this team, manifested in reduced roles for those whose game and production have slipped, their worst stretch of the season feels like it.
(Photo: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
