No matter how much many fans want them to fade quietly for draft purposes, the Maple Leafs have made some noise the past few games.
Five of a possible six points against playoff-bound clubs falls into ‘too little, too late territory.’ But replacing traded and injured players with hungry farmhands, which gets some veterans catching the spirit, is a recipe for a few late-season upsets.
With goaltending, one of their strongest suits this season, it’s helped the latest win, 4-2 in Minnesota on Sunday, passing a couple of teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Our takeaways:
PUT A BO ON IT
Watching Auston Matthews go 12 games without a goal before his season-ending knee injury and just about every scorer not named William Nylander struggle, makes Bo Groulx’s story all the more fascinating.
The 26-year-old had not lit the lamp in the NHL since Nov. 7, 2021, one in 65 games as an Anaheim Duck. But he’s earned his second chance as leading scorer with the Marlies and in four Leaf starts has three goals.
“I’m really happy (my skills) translate now in the NHL,” Groulx told Sportsnet after his two middle period goals in a six-minute span. “It’s all about execution and speed, the passes are more crispy, the guys are faster, they check better. I could have a little more speed in transition, but I’m adjusting to that.”
Message sent for next season’s camp if he’s back.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt blocks a shot by Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares, right, during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn.
P.M. (POST MATTHEWS) NEWS
Toronto has now had two games to adjust to the loss of Matthews and a couple more without two other traded centres, Nicolas Roy and Scott Laughton. That’s meant John Tavares, Max Domi, Groulx and Jacob Quillan have had to hold it together down the middle.
Maybe Toronto is not as dominant on the draw these days, but Groulx and Quillan bring energy and have not hurt the top-ranked penalty kill, which helped preserve Sunday’s win and a point in Buffalo the night before.
Domi’s flexibility to play centre and wing has proven useful and though he gets knocked off more pucks at age 35, Tavares is still a force on faceoffs and down low.
As for Matthews, who remained in Toronto on this trip, the furor regarding Radko Gudas’s knee-on-knee suspension is slowly giving way to what the next step for recovery will be for the Leaf captain. Friday’s statement by the team about a re-evaluation of Matthews in two weeks means that time will be used for a determination about surgery on his Grade 3 MCL tear.
Given there’s no post-season rush, that procedure could be carried out with plenty of time for summer recovery and a full training camp.
JUST LIKE THE OLD DAYS
The crunch time test for the Leafs in the past few years has been whether they could play competent defence and get enough goaltending to augment their scoring. That became a moot point for this edition of the team when they lost eight straight prior to last week to fall out of playoff contention.
But Sunday was a throwback to Craig Berube’s club of last year when the Leafs supported Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll by boxing out better, quick sticks and most valuable of all, shot blocks.
Jake McCabe got in front of as many pucks Sunday as he and injured partner Chris Tanev combined in a night, nine of the Leafs 28 blocks. With 163, McCabe leads the NHL.
In the final throes of a sub-par season, Morgan Rielly scored, as well as made a couple of key defensive stops and Brandon Carlo played with a burr up his backside. It came on a night the Leafs missed this season’s most consistent blueliner, Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
When the Leafs did waver on two quick goals by Vladaimir Tarasenko, Berube called a timeout and order was restored.
“No one is folding their tent,” Rielly told reporters in St. Paul. “We’re trying to push. We’re not going to win every night, but you want the compete.”
Stolarz made 36 saves, for his first win since before the Olympic break on Feb. 3. When he and Woll routinely make 30-plus saves a night to hold the Leafs in games, it’s hard to be on board with any tanking mentality on the bench.
“It’s obviously crappy where we are at this time of the year,” Stolarz said. “but at the end of the day, it’s an 82-game season, we have to reset, play hard, establish a culture. We have a lot of call-ups and young guys who play hard, we have to show them the right way.”
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