TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs put a positive spin on their fourth straight loss since the Olympics.<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs gained a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, but they will enter their final 21 regular-season games seven points out of a playoff position.<\/p>\n
But the Boston Bruins, the team that holds down the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, have played two fewer games than the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to stay positive,\u201d Toronto forward Dakota Joshua said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough time for our group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season, the Montreal Canadiens snatched the eighth and final playoff spot in the East with 91 points. That means the Maple Leafs need a minimum of 27 points in their final 21 games to have hope of securing a post-season berth.<\/p>\n
Joshua revealed that different Toronto players have stepped up with words of wisdom in the hopes of shaking the Maple Leafs out of a funk that has seen them lose 10 of their last 13 outings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about sticking together,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cIt\u2019s about finding a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua scored the Maple Leafs\u2019 first goal before 18,255 at Scotiabank Arena in his third game back after missing two months with a lacerated kidney. The 29-year-old left-winger from Dearborn, Mich., admitted that it has been difficult to get his wind back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling better every game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The goal was Joshua\u2019s first since he scored the game-winner at home against the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 16.<\/p>\n
Toronto head coach Craig Berube shuffled his lines in an attempt to get his team a much-needed win. Nicolas Roy, between Joshua and Matias Maccelli, was an effective trio, providing the home team with some physicality.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince (Joshua has) come back, he\u2019s been pretty good,\u201d Berube said. \u201cI thought he did a lot of good things again tonight. Other than the goal, even though it was a great shot, good play. For me, he\u2019s being that heavy, physical player that we need a good job for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berube also put his two best offensive players, captain Auston Matthews and William Nylander, together on a line with Bobby McMann. While Nylander scored the tying goal with 2:30 remaining in regulation on the power play, Matthews extended his season-high goalless streak to eight games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought they were good,\u201d Berube said. \u201cAuston had eight shots. Willie had (four). They created. They just didn’t finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs’ busy post-Olympic schedule continues on Wednesday and Thursday for their fifth and sixth outings in nine days against the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of like our blueprint,\u201d Berube said in his analysis of the shootout loss to the Flyers. \u201cWe did a lot of good things tonight. We’ve got to go out to Jersey and do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs put a positive spin on their fourth straight loss since the Olympics.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[95,53505,53617,53504,825,5,6,1352,285,1355,1357,4,60,5945,5950,56,1354,1834,1361,24377,43,1362,14,104,718,1353,1356,31,1114],"class_list":{"0":"post-482690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-canada-united-states-cultural-relations","11":"tag-canada-united-states-relations","12":"tag-canada-united-states-sports-relations","13":"tag-craig-berube","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-ice-hockey","16":"tag-ice-hockey-leagues","17":"tag-national-hockey-league","18":"tag-national-hockey-league-teams","19":"tag-national-hockey-league-trophies-and-awards","20":"tag-nhl","21":"tag-nhl-playoffs","22":"tag-nhl-seasons","23":"tag-nhl-team-seasons","24":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","25":"tag-seasons-in-american-ice-hockey","26":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","27":"tag-seasons-in-canadian-ice-hockey","28":"tag-seasons-in-ice-hockey","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-sports-organizations","31":"tag-stanley-cup","32":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","33":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl","34":"tag-top-level-sports-leagues","35":"tag-top-tier-ice-hockey-leagues","36":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","37":"tag-william-nylander"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482690","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=482690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}