The Maple Leafs lost 3-1 to the New York Islanders on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena. Wednesday is a day off for the team.
—
After Islanders forward Kyle MacLean bumped into Joseph Woll in the second period on Tuesday night, Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly immediately went after him and dropped the gloves.
“That’s huge,” Woll said. “The last few games just watching the amount of urgency to protect people out there has been awesome from our team. Mo’s obviously not a guy that’s always looking to fight, so for him to jump in and do that means a lot. So, yeah, pretty awesome of him.”
“It was a great job by him getting in there and sticking up for Joseph,” said coach Craig Berube. “Obviously, that message has gotten across.”
It was Rielly’s fifth fight in the NHL and first this season.
“It’s not something I do a lot of,” the veteran of 939 games said. “I’m not very good at it, but I think it’s important down the stretch for our group.”
In a game last Thursday, the Leafs did not respond immediately after captain Auston Matthews sustained a season-ending injury courtesy a knee-on-knee hit by Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas.
Radko Gudas goes knee-on-knee with Auston Matthews. Gudas received a minute major pending review. Auston Matthews was down for a while but has gotten back to his feet. pic.twitter.com/Rxf6xIe1GH
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) March 13, 2026
Rielly was among the four other Toronto skaters on the ice when Matthews got hurt. After that game, the longest-serving Leaf said he regretted not jumping in immediately to stand up for his teammate.
“It has been a tough year for him,” Berube said of Rielly, who has been on the ice for the most 5-on-5 goals against in the NHL. “We all know that. He took [what happened with Matthews] personally. But it is not just on Mo or any one individual. They all should’ve been in there right away. They’ve obviously learned from it. There has been a difference now.”
The team has talked “almost daily” about what happened and the need to be better since then. On Tuesday morning, rookie Easton Cowan, who was also on the ice when Matthews got hit, vowed to learn from what happened. Cowan dropped the gloves with Jackson LaCombe after the Ducks defenceman landed a big hit on Nick Robertson in the third period of last Thursday’s game.
Is there extra pressure to respond during games now?
“Pressure is not the right word,” said Rielly. “But we’ve talked about it and it’s at the front of our minds, just in terms of playing hard. There’s no pressure on anyone to go out and do something that they’re not comfortable doing. It’s just more a matter of playing hard and keeping that going for the last month.”
The Leafs are destined to miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season. It’s been a disappointing year and the lack of an immediate response to the knee on Matthews represented another low moment.
The Leafs have engaged in four fights in the four games since Matthews got hurt.
“We had a lot of sit-down talks and we had to look in the mirror to get to the spot where we’ve played these past few games,” said winger Steven Lorentz, who lifted the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in 2024.
“We’ve tried to do that consistently and it’s not a lack of effort, but you can tell we haven’t been like that the entire season. It hasn’t been consistent enough and it’s been nice to see these past few games. You got guys like Mo sticking up for guys and Cowboy [Cowan] with a fight a few games back. It’s not about going out and fighting, but if a guy takes a run at a guy on your team it’s about having the liberty to stick up for a guy on your team.”
Why did it take what happened to Matthews to get the Leafs doing this again?
“That’s a good question,” Woll admits. “All I’m going to say, really, is the past few games has been really great, seeing our team do that. From the time I’ve been here I feel like we’ve had guys who stand up for our teammates, and that hasn’t been an issue in my time being here. It’s kind of just a weird one-off type of thing, but that’s all I’m going to say. I know everyone really cares a lot about each other in this room and I think it’s been awesome the last few games.”
‘Took that personally’: Rielly’s rare fight latest sign Leafs adapting after Matthews-Gudas incident After Kyle MacLean bumped Joseph Woll on Tuesday, Morgan Rielly dropped the gloves. “Obviously, that message has gotten across,” said coach Craig Berube, who blasted his team for not standing up for Auston Matthews following a knee by Radko Gudas last week. “He took that personally.”
—
Down the hall in the Islanders room, the fight wasn’t a talking point at all. Head coach Patrick Roy wasn’t asked about it.
There was yelling and hollering heard as the Islanders celebrated an important win that allowed them to maintain a playoff spot in a tight Eastern Conference race.
“We’re just messing around,” said defenceman Matthew Schaefer. “A little shenanigans. We just clap and clap and clap and we don’t stop. It was for Schenner’s first goal.”
Trade deadline pick-up Brayden Schenn opened the scoring on Tuesday night courtesy a nice set up by Oakville, Ont. native Cal Ritchie.
Ritchie and Schaefer, who is from Stoney Creek, Ont., were playing their first NHL game in Toronto.
“It was awesome,” said Schaefer. “Growing up as a kid, coming to Leafs games, even the ‘Go Leafs Go!’ chants and things like that bring back memories. It’s so fun to have friends and family in the building and get the two points.”
Schaefer, the first-overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft, estimated that he had close to 1,000 supporters in the crowd.
“In warmups I saw a lot of people,” Schaefer said. “I saw some of my school buddies and I looked up and they were making faces at me, so I was laughing there a little bit.”
Schaefer logged almost 23 minutes and recorded an assist as he continues to build a case to be an unanimous Calder Trophy winner.
Dad Todd Schaefer watched it all from a box with other family members.
“There’s teachers here, there’s friends, there’s so many people here and they’re here to support Matthew the person not necessarily Matthew because he’s in the NHL,” Todd told TSN. “It brings up a lot of memories of me coming here with my dad and always being a Leaf fan. It was just, like, Is this really happening? Like, are we really at the Leafs rink? Just crazy, crazy, crazy.”
Schaefer’s mom, Jenniefer, passed away in February 2024 at age 56 following a two-year battle with breast cancer.
“I wish she got to see me,” the 18-year-old said. “I wish she could be here too, but just her being in the atmosphere with our family, my dad and brother, and lots of friends and family. It would’ve been awesome.”
John Tavares on Matthew Schaefer:
“He’s doing things only a handful of players have done. It’s extremely, extremely impressive. He’s not just a franchise player, but he’s certainly put himself in a generational type of a talent [category]”https://t.co/RrrnV2SQcI
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 17, 2026
‘Is this really happening?’: Schaefer’s dad reflects on son’s ‘crazy’ homecoming Matthew Schaefer’s father, Todd Schaefer, joins Mark Masters to share what it was like to watch his son play in Toronto, his favourite moment of the experience, how he’ll celebrate the win against the Maple Leafs, and more.
—
After setting up Schenn, Ritchie scored a goal of his own. His mom, Shannon, appeared to be near tears in the crowd.
“I think I was in shock,” she told TSN.
“Thanks,” Cal said with a grin while standing nearby.
“No,” Shannon said with a laugh. “That’s not what I meant.”
Ritchie’s father, Patrick, chimed in with a clarification.
“She’s never seen him score live in the NHL,” he said. “We’ve been talking about that for a while. We’ve seen lots of games so to see that here in Toronto is just crazy.”
Ritchie is now up to 10 goals in 58 career NHL games.
“Cal grew up loving hockey, our family loves hockey and the Leafs were our team, so for him to come here, his first time here, and do what he did, we’re so proud of him,” Patrick said. “We’re so happy.”
“It was a very emotional homecoming,” said Shannon. “Very surreal. It felt very full circle.”
‘I was in shock’: Ritchie’s mom explains why seeing son’s goal in Toronto was so special Calum Ritchie’s parents, Patrick and Shannon Ritchie, join Mark Masters to discuss watching their son score his first career goal against the Maple Leafs and why it’s extra special.
—
Oliver Ekman-Larsson returned to the Leafs lineup after missing Sunday’s game to be with his wife for the birth of the couple’s second child.
“It’s been awesome,” the 34-year-old Swede said. “Not a lot of sleep, but it’s been great. Wifey’s been battling and had some tough nights, but she’s been unbelievable, so just happy to have been there and support her and do whatever I can to make it better. It’s an awesome feeling. We’re so happy and everybody’s doing good.”
A baby boy, name still to be determined, arrived on Monday afternoon. Ekman-Larsson missed Tuesday’s morning skate, but rejoined the team in time for the game against the Islanders.
“I felt alright,” he said. “I felt alright. I’ll leave it at that. But it was good to come back and battle with the guys and see the guys again.”
Ekman-Larsson played a game-high 25 minutes and 53 seconds.
“He wasn’t at his best and that is normal,” Berube said. “It’s 48 hours with his wife and the new baby. It is a tough game for him, but he wanted to play, and I wanted him to play, too.”
‘Not a lot of sleep’: New dad Ekman-Larsson ‘felt alright’ while leading Leafs in ice time .
—
Ilya Sorokin stopped 26 of 27 shots to pick up his 150th career win.
“Any time you’re playing a stud out there, it’s pretty fun,” said Woll, who turned aside 31 of 34 shots. “You gotta kind of turn your goalie brain off a bit because it’s cool to watch him. If I’m backing up I usually enjoy watching guys like that and learning.”
What does he learn from watching Sorokin?
“Kind of similar to his Russian counterparts,” Woll noted. “They’re all so smooth and technically sound. If I could draw up a perfect technical goalie, It’d probably be him. He’s always in the right spot and he’s so smooth. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun playing against him.”
But Berube felt the Leafs could have done a better job of making life harder on Sorokin.
“It was not enough,” the coach said of the offensive thrust from his team. “I look at our forecheck and how we got a lot of pucks back on our forecheck — we have to do more of it. We didn’t do enough of it. We didn’t get to the net front, and that is the bottom line. That is where it all starts for me. If that goalie sees the puck, he will stop most of them. We didn’t get to the net front to create chaos and second and third opportunities. That is the difference in the game.”
Leafs’ Woll relished chance to battle ‘perfect technical goalie’ Sorokin Ilya Sorokin stopped 26 of 27 shots to beat the Leafs on Tuesday. “If I could draw up a perfect technical goalie, it’d probably be him,” said Joseph Woll. “He’s always in the right spot and he’s so smooth.” But coach Craig Berube felt his team didn’t do enough to trouble the Vezina Trophy contender.
—
Leafs lines in Tuesday’s game:
Maccelli – Tavares – Nylander
Knies – Domi – Cowan
Joshua – Groulx – Robertson
Lorentz – Quillan – Jarnkrok
Rielly – Myers
McCabe – Carlo
Ekman-Larsson – Stecher
Woll
Stolarz