It is a statement in fact that the clock is ticking on the Toronto Maple Leafs 2025-26 regular season. The club has reached the halfway point of their critical six-game road swing that could go far in determining their fate this season, with an unforgivable performance in a loss to Montreal, a standout performance by Joseph Woll in an overtime win over Columbus, and a missed opportunity in a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Friday night.
Once again, Woll was spectacular in facing 34 Capitals shots, and was under siege for most of the contest, but in spite of the home team dominating, the Leafs had a 2-0 lead on goals from Morgan Rielly and Matthew Knies until late in the second period. Without William Nylander – a scratch due to illness – Toronto chose to try to play shutdown hockey as they did against the Blue Jackets on Wednesday.
The Leafs are not last year’s club with the ability to suffocate teams at times, especially as currently constructed without Brandon Carlo and Chris Tanev, and with a talented youngster like Easton Cowan playing in a top-six role. They failed to accomplish their goal on Wednesday when Zach Werenski gave Columbus the lead before Cowan scored late in regulation, and failed once again on Friday.
Connor McMichael narrowed the Toronto lead to 2-1 in the middle frame, and with the Leafs holding on by their fingernails, Anthony Beauvillier scored to tie the game and Jakob Chychrun tallied the game-winner within a span of 2:48 to seal their fate.
“If we finish better, we win this game,” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said. “We just didn’t capitalize on some (chances) and made a couple mistakes in the (defensive) zone on the third period…..we got stick lifted (on the first goal) and then they made it play off the wall to (Alex Ovechkin), we’ve got to have that back door sealed up and they got roaming around on that next goal.”
The Leafs needed to get at least a point out of a game in which they got the goaltending and held a lead deep into the third period, but to come up empty is another setback. Toronto is now 1-2-0 on this trip and will play their third game in four nights on the road against Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Currently, the Leafs are five points out of third place in the Atlantic Division and six points out of the final Eastern Conference wildcard spots – one of them occupied by the Penguins –, but the gap between them and the six teams in between those spots is beginning to widen.
It is clear from his recent statements that GM Brad Treliving has no hunger to make a coaching change, so the dismissal of Berube in favor of someone like Peter DeBoer is a long shot at best. Toronto needs to get a full roster back as soon as possible, but they cannot rush Tanev back for fear of another concussion that could end his season and possibly his career, and in truth, they were not playing that great with a full roster. What that leaves is the possibility of a trade, which falls back in Treliving’s lap.
The Leafs GM is renowned for keeping lines of communication open with every GM, and teams such as Nashville, Calgary, Vancouver, St. Louis, and Buffalo could be open to making a hockey trade as we enter December. It may be time for Treliving to pull the trigger on something that does not further mortgage the future and shakes up the club’s roster if that is possible.
Otherwise, if Toronto finishes this road swing losing four or five of the six games, the chances of getting back into the playoff race are next to nil.
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