It is impossible to believe that things could get worse for the Toronto Maple Leafs as they approach the quarter mark of the regular season. The club is 8-9-2, and the only thing that is keeping them from the bottom of the East is one more victory than the perennial occupant of the conference basement, the Buffalo Sabres.
That is quite pathetic on the part of the Blue and White when you consider that the Sabres lost the first three games of the season and eight of nine games before winning the last two against Detroit and Edmonton. The Leafs are losers of their last five (0-4-1) and are without not only team captain Auston Matthews, but their two top righty defenseman in Chris Tanev and Brandon Carlo, centers Scott Laughton and Nicolas Roy, and goalie Anthony Stolarz as they take on the St. Louis Blues at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
Leafs GM Brad Treliving spoke with the media for his quarterly review of the club Tuesday morning, and indicated that he is not happy with their performance through 19 games.
“As we sit here today, our record is indicative of how we’ve played,” Treliving said. “There’s nights that you play well and lose, there’s nights that you just score more than the opponent, but you haven’t played well. I think far too often, even in games that we’ve won, we haven’t won the game. Sometimes we’ve scored more goals. I look at it really in a couple of areas in particular, we just got to play a more connected game, starting defensively, we’ve given up too much and that’s on our whole group, from from our goaltending right through our whole our whole group, we’ve given up too much defensively. That wasn’t this team last year.”
Those looking for a change in head coach, Treliving said that he believes in the messaging of Craig Berube and that the players are still buying in to his direction, but recoginzes that the club has been inconsistent through the first six weeks of the regular season and believes one of the main problems with the club is that they have been “too vanilla” this season. He also said that he is always open to a trade.
“The reality in the business is that you are not trading your way out of problems,” Treliving said. “You have to have patience in this job, but patience isn’t inactivity. You are always looking to make your team better……the majority of the problems we have, need to be solved within that group.”
That is reflective of what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday, that Treliving is looking to make a hockey trade and not deals that involve futures. That makes sense because other than Easton Cowan and Ben Danford, the Leafs do not have any futures. Where Treliving does have an advantage is there are some teams after a disappointing first quarter that may be ready to pull the trigger on a deal.
Troy Stecher is expected to play his first game as a Leaf on Tuesday, partnering with Dakota Mermis on the bottom pairing. Joseph Woll will make his second straight start, and face off against Jordan Binnington.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (8-9-2 – 18 POINTS)
vs.
ST. LOUIS BLUES (6-9-4 – 16 POINTS)
NOVEMBER 18, 2025 ▪ 7:00 PM EST ▪ SCOTIABANK ARENA (TORONTO, ON)
TV: TSN ▪ RADIO: TSN 1050
MAPLE LEAFS HISTORY vs. ST. LOUIS BLUES
| All-Time Record: | 98-99-25-7 (229 Games) |
| All-Time Home Record: | 61-35-11-6 (113 Games) |
| 2024-25: | 0-2-0 |
| Last Five: | 2-2-1 |
| Last 10: | 5-4-1 |
| First Matchup Between Clubs: | December 10, 1967 (Toronto 1 at St. Louis 2) |
| All-Time Record: | 98-99-25-7 (229 Games) |
| All-Time Home Record: | 61-35-11-6 (113 Games) |
| All-Time Road Record: | 37-64-14-1 (116 Games) |
| Last Home Win vs. Opponent: | February 13, 2024 (Toronto 4 vs. St. Louis 1) |
MAPLE LEAFS / BLUES – 2025-26 TEAM STATS
| TORONTO | ST. LOUIS | |
| Goals For Per Game: | 3.53 (4th) | 2.79 (24th-T) |
| Goals Against Per Game: | 3.79 (31st) | 3.84 (32nd) |
| Power Play %: | 16.0 (26th) | 22.9 (12th) |
| Penalty Kill %: | 79.0 (17th-T) | 70.8 (30th) |
| Shots For Per Game: | 27.7 (17th) | 25.6 (27th) |
| Shots Against Per Game: | 31.2 (28th) | 27.7 (17th) |
| Faceoff %: | 56.2 (2nd) | 50.5 (14th) |
| (NHL rank in parenthesis) | ||
