SIMMONS: It's unofficial but so real: Leafs' season is over

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The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t just lose to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. They beat themselves. They got terrible goaltending – again. They weren’t ready to start or end periods. They offered little competitively to show anything of themselves to come away impressed with.

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Published Jan 28, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read

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Buffalo Sabres goaltender Colten Ellis makes a save as Owen Power defends against Toronto Maple Leafs’ Jake McCabe during second period NHL action in Toronto on Jan. 27, 2026. Photo by Frank Gunn /The Canadian PressArticle content

The sad ending to the most pathetic Maple Leafs season in more than a decade became unofficial but apparent late on a Tuesday evening in Toronto.

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It is over for the Leafs. This season. The hope. The belief that something good might happen to a club that has tripped over itself all season long.

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The Leafs didn’t just lose to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. They beat themselves. They got terrible goaltending — again. They weren’t ready to start or end periods. They offered little competitively to show anything of themselves to come away impressed with.

And within a few minutes of each other, three games in three cities doomed the Maple Leafs.

They lost 7-4 to the Buffalo Sabres, falling eight points behind a team that has not made the playoffs in 14 years. Montreal and Boston both won games in overtime — and now both the Habs and the Bruins are eight points ahead of the Leafs.

Eight points behind seems like a million points to make up between now and April.

And it wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Leafs have been to the post-season nine years in a row and this would have been Year 10. That was before the goalie injuries, and the injuries to Chris Tanev and Brandon Carlo on defence, and before Mitch Marner was traded to Vegas and William Nylander got hurt before giving the fans the finger and that was before Craig Berube’s face was dislodged in an dubious gym accident of some kind.

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What is there to build around?

This whole Leafs season looks a little bit like Berube’s face: Not pretty, not easily explained, lost in a way we haven’t really seen in years. The last time the Leafs missed the playoffs, they were trying to miss the playoffs.

They had no players. They had no hope.

That won them Auston Matthews and almost a decade of Stanley Cup contention without ever really contending for the Stanley Cup. Marner became a star. Nylander became a star. John Tavares came in as a free agent and produced as advertised and the big surprise, the development of Matthew Knies, was encouraging.

So much to build around, and so much to believe in, and today what is there to build around and what is there to believe in?

Sports can do that to you. One season, the New England Patriots are horrible and the next season they’re going to the Super Bowl.

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The great pair of Leafs goaltenders, Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz, have been what goalies cannot be. Ask any NHL coach about his goaltenders and they’ll tell you they want goalies who can be trusted, goalies they can believe in.

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Woll missed the beginning of the season, came back from his mystery time away and played very well, and then he stopped playing very well. He has now lost five starts in a row and the Leafs have lost five games in a row.

In the five defeats, Toronto has been outscored 25-12. You can’t win giving up five goals against a night. And the goaltender the Leafs needed to rely on — he looks on occasion like a big-time netminder — looked out of position Tuesday night, reaching, sliding, never in control, never confident.

The goaltender mirroring the team for which he plays.

Stolarz never really has recovered from being knocked out of last year’s playoffs. He looked like a real steal for a minute in time, and he has missed most of this season with a mystery injury and has not been sharp upon coming back.

The Leafs thought they had two goaltenders, a real tandem to trust. Now they’re not sure they have one.

In a game that meant everything to their struggling season, the Leafs led 1-0 in the first period, led 2-1, watched the Sabres lose their starting goalie to injury, and that should have been it for Buffalo, not Toronto.

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But it was 3-2 Buffalo after one period. And It was 4-3 after two periods. The Leafs had just 13 shots on goal in the first 40 minutes. That by itself was rather uninspiring, and then 16 seconds into the third period, Alex Tuch scored to make it 5-3.

Sixteen seconds in. A team not ready to compete in a one-goal game in the third period in its own building. It went from 5-3 to 6-3 and everything that happened after that — Buffalo won 7-4 — is nothing more that statistical padding.

The Leafs have 57 points in the Atlantic Division standings. Buffalo is eight points ahead with a game in hand. Montreal is eight points ahead and the Leafs have a game in hand on the Habs. The Bruins are eight points ahead as well — and the Leafs are behind the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and tied with the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers and they’re two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators.

Numbers don’t add up to a playoff spot

The math doesn’t work in the Leafs’ favour and neither does the schedule. They play Montreal one more time in Montreal. They play Buffalo and Boston in Buffalo and Boston after the Olympics.

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How do you make up eight points and climb over at least four teams to get to a playoff spot?

Eight of the Leafs’ next 10 games are on the road. Maybe two of them are against teams that matter in their division. Not one of them are against Montreal, Buffalo or Boston. They play the Habs on March 10 in Montreal. They play the Sabres on March 14 in Buffalo. And they play the Bruins on March 24 in Boston.

The Leafs finished 32 points ahead of the Bruins last season, 29 points ahead of the Sabres, 17 points ahead of the Canadiens. Numbers of inconsequence now.

Last year doesn’t matter much this year. You can bet this year is over.

ssimmons@postmedia.com

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SIMMONS: It’s unofficial but so real: Leafs’ season is over

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