{"id":423880,"date":"2026-01-23T16:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/423880\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:44:19","slug":"ekman-larsson-was-the-one-loss-the-maple-leafs-couldnt-afford-the-hockey-writers-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/423880\/","title":{"rendered":"Ekman-Larsson Was the One Loss the Maple Leafs Couldn\u2019t Afford – The Hockey Writers – Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs <\/a>didn\u2019t just lose a player on Wednesday night. They lost the one defenceman who had been holding a lot of things together.<\/p>\n

Related: Lorne \u201cGump\u201d Worsley: The Story of an Icon<\/a><\/p>\n

went down early against the Detroit Red Wings<\/a>, and from that moment on, the game tilted into survival mode. You could see it almost immediately in how the minutes stacked up and how the bench shortened. When a team already running on fumes loses its most dependable blueliner, there\u2019s no smooth way to absorb it. You just start borrowing from tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Ekman-Larsson has been Toronto\u2019s best defenceman for a while now, and not in a flashy, headline-grabbing way. He\u2019s been the one who settles shifts, moves the puck cleanly, and makes the right play more often than not. Eight goals, 31 points, and steady use in all situations are not accidental production. That\u2019s a player the coaching staff trusts, and trust is the real currency on a blue line.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelDetroit Red Wings center Michael Rasmussen and Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson fight for position in front of goaltender Dennis Hildeby (Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Once he was gone, the redistribution of minutes told the story. Jake McCabe played over 28 minutes. Troy Stecher logged more than 25. Brandon Carlo <\/a>was over 20. Simon Benoit was the only defenceman whose workload didn\u2019t spike dramatically, which in itself says something about how roles are being defined right now.<\/p>\n

Morgan Rielly Didn\u2019t Lead the Maple Leafs in Ice Time<\/p>\n

Two things stood out. First, Morgan Rielly wasn\u2019t leading the team in ice time in a close, important game \u2014 something that would have been automatic in previous seasons. Second, Stecher, claimed off waivers<\/a> and making league-minimum money, played more than Rielly. That isn\u2019t a knock on anyone. Stecher has stepped up and done exactly what\u2019s been asked of him. It\u2019s a snapshot of where this blue line is right now.<\/p>\n

Related: Maple Leafs News & Rumours: Cowan, Knies, McCabe, McMann & OEL<\/a><\/p>\n

The plight of the Maple Leafs\u2019 defensive core isn\u2019t about one bad night or one tough stretch. It\u2019s about accumulation. The schedule has been brutal. The games have been tight. The margins are thin. When you remove the one defenceman who was absorbing pressure and easing transitions, everyone else has to play just a little harder, a little longer, a little more carefully. That\u2019s where mistakes start to creep in \u2014 not because players don\u2019t care, but because legs and brains stop syncing up.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs\u2019 Defence Isn\u2019t Young Anymore<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the age and wear factor. Ekman-Larsson is 34. McCabe is 32 and plays a physical game that asks a lot of his body. Rielly has logged heavy minutes for years. These aren\u2019t interchangeable parts. They\u2019re veterans being leaned on at a time when the team can least afford another crack in the foundation.<\/p>\n

\"TorontoToronto Maple Leafs Morgan Rielly (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

The bigger concern isn\u2019t just how Toronto survives a game or two without Ekman-Larsson. It\u2019s what this does over a two- or three-week stretch if he\u2019s out longer. The Maple Leafs are already flirting with the edge of the playoff picture. Every overtime loss, every tired third period, every point left on the table tightens the math.<\/p>\n

Related: Bobby McMann\u2019s Gesture Says Everything About Maple Leafs Hockey<\/a><\/p>\n

Coaching decisions get harder, too. Do you keep riding your top four, risking burning them out? Do you spread minutes more evenly and accept the growing pains that come with it? Do you ask Rielly to be something he hasn\u2019t been asked to be lately, or do you stick with what\u2019s been working and hope the dam doesn\u2019t break?<\/p>\n

There are no easy answers here. Just trade-offs.<\/p>\n

Wednesday Night Showed How Small the Maple Leafs Margin Has Become<\/p>\n

What Wednesday night showed, more than anything, is how narrow the Maple Leafs\u2019 margin has become. They played a good team to a standstill. They got strong goaltending. They earned a point. And still, you walked away feeling the cost.<\/p>\n

Now the question isn\u2019t whether Toronto can play with teams like Detroit. They can. The question is whether they can keep doing it now that the one defenceman who stabilized everything is gone.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the real \u201cnow what.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs didn\u2019t just lose a player on Wednesday night. They lost the one defenceman who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5106],"tags":[5,20,5172,885,4,782,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-423880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-maple-leafs","10":"tag-mapleleafs","11":"tag-morgan-rielly","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-oliver-ekman-larsson","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","16":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115945424342509763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}