TORONTO — When is the honeymoon over?
When do the good vibes bubbling around the Toronto Maple Leafs’ early season need to translate to meaningful growth?
Hat tricks and highlights and rookie intrigue and some impressive individual showings will only get a team so far.
Now, we see how the house that John Chayka built holds up to its first real stretch of severe weather: injuries to two backbone players, three consecutive losses, and a tumble down the standings despite playing twice as many games at home as on the road.
Sometime after Troy Stecher — an admirable third-pair defenceman playing top-pair minutes Saturday — takes his stick and smashes it in half over Sergei Bobrovsky’s crossbar in frustration, and sometime before a few Leafs faithful let the boo birds fly and head coach Jim Hiller delivers his tensest post-game press conference since the last one, it dawns on you:
Maybe the Maple Leafs (3-4-2) aren’t significantly better than they were under the last coach.
The New York Islanders, who beat the home team 4-1 wire-to-wire Saturday, aren’t considered an NHL powerhouse by any means. The Leafs are down Chris Tanev and John Tavares, sure. But they’re rested and should’ve been inspired to respond from Thursday’s blown two-goal lead to Buffalo.
And the patient, pack-the-house Islanders started the game down Mathew Barzal and lost two more top-six forwards to injury before the game was 17 minutes old.
Still, Toronto could not find a path — or opted not to force one — through Pete DeBoer’s defence.
“It’s just disappointing. They could have their full lineup in there, and our lack of fortitude to get to the inside makes it disappointing in any case,” Hiller lamented. “You’re not going to score from the perimeter against this team.
“I don’t think our D had many looks tonight, and there was nothing inside.”
Nothing, especially, from Toronto’s stacked top line of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Jack Roslovic, which generated just 16.5 per cent of expected goals. Nylander had one shot and finished a dash-3. Matthews had one shot, was minus-1, and went 3-for-11 in the dot.
“They played hard,” Matthews said. “They did a good job of keeping us on the outside, and I think we passed up on a lot of shots today too, and just kind of made it a little bit easier on them.”
The formula for Hiller’s Leafs to win, so far, has been for the eight-figure salaried guys to dazzle and for a power play that entered this contest fourth overall to deliver.
The Leafs couldn’t sustain momentum 5-on-5, so going 0-for-3 on the man-advantage spelled disaster.
“The power plays that we had almost just gave them more momentum with the way that they were able to clear pucks, break up plays, deny entries and stuff like that,” Matthews said.
Disappointing, too, was the lack of emotion or initiative by the Leafs to change the tenor of 60 minutes played to the lullaby of Islanders Hockey.
Outside of Stecher’s smashed stick and jubilant celebration when his point shot got tipped in smartly by Colton Sissons, the Leafs allowed the Islanders to suck the life out of Scotiabank Arena like a swarm of energy vampires. Hockey’s Colin Robinsons.
Tanev is skating again, which is positive, but another trade feels like a Hail Mary.
As Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday, Chayka isn’t keen on spending for a B-level defenceman. He’d be open to offering prime assets for a difference-maker, but it’s probably too early to circle back on Zach Werenski just yet. Oh, and the GM is willing to trade an older defenceman for a younger one, but who isn’t?
What the Leafs can do in the meantime is summon urgency as they enter Week 4 of 2026-27 in the same spot they finished 2025-26: last place in the Atlantic Division.
Yes, they’ve now fallen below the Red Wings, generally viewed as this month’s tire fire.
“I think the spirit’s fine,” Hiller said. “We want to win some games. Let’s be honest.”
No better time to start than Monday-Tuesday’s back-to-back versus San Jose and at Columbus, a couple of fellow non-playoff teams also striving for identity and consistency.
“You can’t take too much time here to sort things out. Not in this league. Not in our division. We fully are aware of that. Down some guys right now. We gotta all pick it up collectively, and we got full belief that we can do that,” Sissons said.
“We need urgency,” Matthews echoed. “The games are just going to keep coming, and we’ve got to just be better in all areas — starting with myself, starting with the leaders and veterans on this team. I think we’ve all got another level to show.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• Gavin McKenna’s ice time nearly tripled from Thursday’s night. The rookie skated 17:56 and put four pucks on net. Among Leafs forwards, only Matthews and Nylander saw more ice.
“You can just tell. Like, I don’t think anything really shakes him,” Matthews said of McKenna’s response to the benching. “He’s got confidence in his game. He knows what he can do out there, and he’s going to make plays, and I thought he showed that tonight.”
• Bo Horvat was the best player on the sheet. The two-way centre is carrying an Islanders forward group patched together by shoestrings and bubble gum.
Horvat scored the winner, set up an insurance goal and is up to nine points in eight games since being named captain. He tied workhorse defencemen Darren Raddysh and Matthew Schaefer for most ice time on this night (24:21).
The difference? Horvat killed penalties, too.
• Despite the Maple Leafs’ slide, their penalty kill (two-for-two Saturday, including a short 5-on-3) remains the league standard: 96.4 per cent.
“Guys play smart, sacrifice their bodies. So, it’s fun to watch and fun to be part of it,” Bobrovsky said. “And we can build from it, for sure.”
• Ex-Leaf Matias Maccelli needed help off the ice and to the room after falling awkwardly from a Raddysh trip. Both he and second-line pivot Cal Ritchie left the game in the first period with lower-body injuries and did not return, leaving the Isles with 10 bodies up front.
Maccelli came into the game on a five-game point streak and tied for most points among 2026 UFAs who signed one-year deals (Paul Cotter, Evgeni Malkin).
• Easton Cowan filmed a little spot for Chuck’s Roadhouse Bar and Grill in which he told a funny little story. On his first date with his girlfriend, she asked if he wanted to order drinks. Assuming she meant non-alcoholic, the winger ordered a nice, cold glass of chocolate milk.
“Getting a lot of chirps about it today,” Cowan said Saturday morning, shaking his head.
“Hey! Little Moo!” piped Anthony Stolarz as Cowan left the dressing room.
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