William Nylander<\/a>, who pulled on a shirt for his post-game interview. \u201cWe\u2019ve been, you know, competing good. But tonight I think they were competing better than us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nThe\u00a0they\u00a0Nylander speaks of included such unfamiliar Panthers as Marek Alscher, Donovan Sebrango, Wilmer Skoog, Cole Schwidt, and Cole Reinhardt \u2014 who scored after driving the net like Sam Reinhart (no relation).<\/p>\n
Yep, before most Toronto fans left early to beat traffic on Dress-Like-a-Seat Night, it was Bring-Your-Kids-to-Work Day at the ol\u2019 Scotiabank Arena.<\/p>\n
Fifth-liner Tomas Nosek woke up Saturday morning with zero goals on the season; he fell asleep with two.<\/p>\n
What do you expect when these two former Atlantic Division powers are only showing up because forfeiting isn\u2019t an option?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Leafs coach Craig Berube said at morning skate. \u201cThat\u2019s a good question. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a good question or how to answer it, to be honest with you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always tell our guys it\u2019s a privilege to play in the NHL, and you take every game as seriously as you can. I get it, where the situation is for both teams. But, in the end, personally, from my standpoint, we owe it to our teammates, to the organization, to the fans: You go out and play the game properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Florida Panthers\/Charlotte Checkers certainly did. What felt less than proper, however, was the pre-season-inspired lineup the franchise dressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you factor that backup goalie Daniil Tarasov started in favour of Sergei Bobrovsky, the two-time champions had roughly $85 million worth of talent not participating.<\/p>\n
The Leafs, meanwhile, dressed all their healthy NHLers and started their most accomplished goalie.<\/p>\n
Florida’s highest-paid forward, Eetu Luostarinen ($3 million), opened the scoring on the first shot directed at Joseph Woll. And by the time Reinhardt doubled the score, the great tank-off was barely five-and-a-half minutes old.<\/p>\n
Berube threw a dart, challenging for goalie interference, and missed, putting his team on the penalty kill. Another 50\/50 battle lost.<\/p>\n
And while Nylander \u2014 the most talented man in the game by 88 miles \u2014 nearly stole two points himself with a two-goal, five-shot effort, Florida\u2019s depth outworked and outshot (25-19) the home team for a victory that, ultimately, doesn\u2019t do the Panthers much good.<\/p>\n
Or the top-10-pick-hunting Boston Bruins, who punched their ticket to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Yes, it was a fine evening for Team Tank, crossing its fingers for a bottom-five finish and no lottery hoppers.<\/p>\n
The Panthers, Blues, and Kraken all gathered two points Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs gathered none. All week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the reverse standings, the Leafs are in fifth place with just two games to blow.<\/p>\n
Their odds to win 2026\u2019s first-overall draft choice have improved to 8.5 per cent. And if the Rangers and\/or Flames win out, Toronto can \u201cimprove\u201d to fourth- or third-worst overall with regulation losses to Dallas Monday and Ottawa Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Feels kinda gross, but Leafs fans should be cheering for more losses the deeper we get into April.<\/p>\n
Everything\u2019s upside-down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing\u2019s permanent in this league,\u201d Florida coach Paul Maurice said. \u201cYou can win a Stanley Cup and miss the playoffs by 100 miles. We\u2019re going to prove that this year, and then we\u2019re going to try to win next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Maurice considered the state of the opposition and the pressures of Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be a great thing,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, if you\u2019re going to hit a home run, this is a good place to hit a home run. There\u2019s good and bad in every market. Winning usually changes all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For these Maple Leafs, a little more losing might just help with that winning.<\/p>\n
\u2022 At morning skate, onetime Maple Leafs coach Maurice used the great Mats Sundin as a prime example of how to navigate the scrutiny in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always up front, always front and centre,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cHe would tell the truth \u2014 but was smart enough that there doesn\u2019t always need to be a lot of details with that truth. You know, \u2018We weren\u2019t very good tonight, but we\u2019ll try and be better the next night.\u2019 He was really honest, but he had a presence about him. It\u2019s not an easy thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 After four seasons and 224 games with the Marlies and multiple callups, prospect William Villeneuve finally made his NHL debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t sleep a whole lot last night, to be honest,\u201d the 24-year-old defenceman said. \u201cEveryone has his own path, his own timeline. If I look at myself back four years ago, it\u2019s a different player, different person, so (I\u2019m) confident in my game and I worked a long way for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sherbrooke, Que., native\u2019s first call when he found out he\u2019d made the show was to his parents, who were in the building for this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did see them in the stands, and I\u2019m gonna go see them after (this). I\u2019m just pretty sure it\u2019s gonna be an emotional moment,\u201d said Villeneuve, after skating a healthy 18:45.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ll remember that day for the rest of my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Dakota Joshua (upper body), Brandon Carlo (lower body), and Anthony Stolarz (lower body) are all done for the season due to injuries suffered in Wednesday\u2019s loss to the Capitals.<\/p>\n
Stolarz\u2019s latest ailment is serious enough that it could impact his off-season training, but none of the players require surgery, according to Berube.<\/p>\n
That the injury-prone Stolarz, 32, has a big raise, 16-team trade protection, and four years of team commitment kicking in for 2026-27 should be\u00a0concerning<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u2022 John Tavares has been full value this season as Toronto\u2019s worthy nominee for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, awarded to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience going in and around the city is just how supportive people are, no matter the circumstances,\u201d a grateful Tavares says. \u201cWhether it\u2019s over the last couple weeks and the support people share. Or after last year, after Game 7, the support was there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout my time as a Leaf, the excitement people have for this team and the passion for this team is unwavering. The support we get is incredible. There can be a lot of noise at times, but it just speaks to what this means to so many people and how deep-rooted it is around the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Most surprising team of 2025-26 in Berube\u2019s eyes? The San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat just shows you how good that kid is. A helluva player,\u201d Berube says of Macklin Celebrini. \u201cThey added some veteran pieces to their lineup this year, and some kids are all getting better for them. But they put themselves in a pretty good spot this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Then they out-tanked the champs with their weak performance. Present the Leafs with a must-win at home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-550861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116389989795243371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550861","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=550861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}