It was another tough watch on the way to the end of a misery-filled regular season, as the Toronto Maple Leafs lost 5-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. Jake McCabe scored the lone goal for the Leafs, while Joseph Woll made 33 saves on 38 shots.
Related: Maple Leafs News & Rumours: McCabe, Berube, Woll & Gudas
For the Blues, Jimmy Snuggerud, Justin Holl, Pius Suter, Dylan Holloway, and Philip Broberg scored, while Jordan Binnington made 12 saves on just 13 shots.
Good and Bad From the Blue Line
It’s been a rough season for Morgan Rielly, to say the least. One that even the Rielly truthers have had a hard time defending. Poorly cast or past his prime, Rielly seems to be exposed every night. He’s never been a defensive dynamo, but it’s the basics that seem to be costing him the most.
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Snuggerud opened the scoring for the Blues at 5:21 of the second period, and it was directly related to a Rielly gaffe.
The Leafs lost a puck battle in the offensive zone, and the puck was skied to the Leafs’ side of the neutral zone. Rielly nonchalantly gloved the puck down and didn’t realize how close the Blues’ player was, and the puck ended up in the right corner, along with Rielly. As Rielly was chasing down the puck carrier, Snuggerud snuck behind him, unchecked, and was relatively untouched as he scored his 17th goal of the season. The play began and ended with a Rielly blunder.
Now, to the St. Louis blue line for a moment. How ironic, in a season where the Leafs fell short of the playoffs and can’t even tank properly to salvage a first-round draft pick, Holl of all people scored against his former team for the first time with his new team.
On a positive note, McCabe scored in his second-straight game for his fifth of the season. That’s it. That’s the positive.
Berube’s Comments Continue to Fall Flat
Toronto sports fans are incredibly smart, and they know what they’re watching. It’s not head coach Craig Burube’s fault for exhausting a certain narrative; after all, there’s a microphone shoved in front of his face multiple times a day. What else is there really for him to say?
Whether he sees the writing on the wall or actually believes what he is saying, his post-game comments are falling on deaf ears, both for the fanbase and the players.
“We had one player that showed up tonight, and that was our goalie,” Berube said. “That’s what it really boils down to.”
He’s not wrong. Don’t let the lopsided score deceive you; Woll was terrific for a large part of this game, particularly in the first two periods. The Leafs were outshot 10-4 in the first and 15-4 in the second. Then, as the game was slipping away, they were outshot 13-5 in the third. Woll continued to keep his team within striking distance. As we seem to say often after a loss, this was not the goaltender’s fault.
“It’s very disappointing,” Berube continued to say. “I mean, I thought the last couple of games we were pretty good, and we were building. Like I talk about staying together and playing competitive, and we did not have that out there tonight.”
Building towards what? This is a lost season, man. Nothing McCabe, Rielly, Nylander, or any other veteran does has any bearing on next season. The hope is that, with some roster reconstruction, health, and probably coaching and management changes, the Leafs simply rebound next season. We’ve seen it before with other teams, and we hope to see it with the Maple Leafs. The only players that need to prove anything are the kids. There is no building. There is just regrouping for 2026-27.
That being said, it would be nice to see some competitive hockey. But it feels like the fanbase has given up on that, too.
What’s Next For the Maple Leafs
The Leafs start a three-game West Coast swing on Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks.
