This most unusual Maple Leafs season will take a lot of unpacking

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So, that got weird.

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And In a hurry, too.

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For the 2025-26 Maple Leafs, a stunning club-record, single-season drop of more than 23 points, went from business-as-usual to utterly bizarre, in training camp to this final week of the schedule:

Joe no show

One half of the team’s strongest suit, its goaltending, was suddenly gone at the end of training camp.

Joseph Woll was home in St. Louis, dealing with personal issues and did not make his first start until Nov. 15. He hinted at discussing the reasons for his absence at an appropriate time, but it so far remains a mystery. In his absence, the Leafs were 8-8-1 and he did not look comfortable or string three wins together until after Christmas.

Crease crossed

Keeping Anthony Stolarz and Woll in the lineup at the same time has proven difficult for coach Craig Berube. It wasn’t until this spring they were both healthy at the same time, before Stolarz’s latest breakdown, a lower body issue, neeing help off the ice after starting the April 8 home game against Washington.

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Woll had to come in cold, as he did two weeks earlier in Ottawa when Stolarz was felled by friendly fire from William Nylander, who caught him with a hard shot in the throat during warmups, a sin in the NHL code.

Woll escaped facial injuries a few times, while setting some sort of team record for breaking his mask or having it come loose in the middle of play.

The Leafs went through four goalies before opening night. With Woll away, they signed old fan favourite, James Reimer. But the feel-good story that should’ve seen Reimer make at least one pre-season start ended with his PTO elapsing.

Cayden Primeau came on waivers from the rival Canadiens, won two of three games. before being re-claimed, while Reimer helped Leaf rival Ottawa later in the season. Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov also had nameplates, making this one of the busiest stables in club history.

Stolarz statement

Stolarz was signed from the Cup champion Florida Panthers believing the big man could instill some swagger and experience here.

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Yet when he did speak out, after a loss to Seattle in what became the first of 14 overtime/shootout decisions, it fell on deaf ears. He was angry the Kraken’s Mason Marchment had marauded through his blue paint (a long-time concern for Toronto), urging his more bellicose teammates to reciprocate with some traffic.

Nylander’s laissez-faire back-checking also came under general criticism that night. But Stolarz’s record was .500 in his next eight games before hurt in the same Remembrance Day game as Auston Matthews. Initially considered a minor issue by the club, it turned out to be a hard-to-diagnose nerve issue in his neck that sidelined Stolarz until almost the Olympic break.

Savard savaged

The dismissal of an NHL assistant coach in mid-season is rare, but perhaps the Leafs will start a trend with the pre-Christmas firing of power-play strategist Marc Savard.

After the unit’s two-goal performance the night Matthews was hurt in Boston, a horrendous slump set in for the group, at one point reaching 4-for-47 and a league-low 13.3 per cent conversions before Savard was let go.

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There was an immediate bump as helper Steve Sullivan was promoted from the Marlies, but many of the same old sores returned with the man advantage, zone entries and over-passing, keeping the Leafs middle of the pack in that department.

Weight of the world on Berube

The scars of the season were visible on Berube in a big way when he showed up one morning during the January skid with a nasty gash across his forehead and a black eye.

He called it a self-inflicted weight room mishap that required 50 stitches. Of course, internet memers went right to work with creative variations of the photo, but the former NHL pugilist kept his sense of humour.

“You should see the other guy.”

Lost on Auston’s record

There’s a new franchise goal leader on the 109-year-old club if you’d forgot.

But Matthews’ chase of Mats Sundin 420 was a rather muted one, full of distractions, beginning with that hit from Boston’s Nikita Zadorov. Always hyper-sensitive with injury info no matter if he’ll be out a day or months, there were heightened concerns Matthews would miss considerable time as the year before when he took a secret flight to Munich for assessment on what was thought to be a back ailment.

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This new lower body issue did cost him five games and while the Leafs usually can win without him, the double deletions of himself and the departed Mitch Marner began to take a toll. Where many hoped Matthews would get to Sundin’s mark early, it wasn’t until Jan. 3 in an overtime loss on Long Island that it fell.

Matthews played down the record, though appreciated Sundin, who changed plans and flew to Toronto to be present at a follow-up ceremony.

The primary assist on 421 was by Bobby McMann, who’d be traded two months later. Matthews scored just seven more before season-ending knee surgery, once in 16 games, a struggle that got as much press as his record chase.

Torched after the Olympics

Matthews quieted critics of his play in big-stage games when he helped the United States win gold at the Milan Olympics.

The American captain had an assist in the 2-1 final over Canada and got to participate in the champagne shower moment he’d yet to enjoy in many NHL playoffs. But it wouldn’t be called a happy homecoming.

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When Team USA’s feat became a platform for the publicity-hungry Trump administration and with relations with Canada still raw, cheers and boos were 50-50 in Matthews’ first home game, a much anticipated, but brief medal tribute.

DNA went MIA

The ill treatment of Matthews was raised to a much higher level two weeks later when the Anaheim Ducks were in town.

One of the many clubs who ended their long playoff droughts at the expense of the Leafs, Toronto was in an eight-game losing streak death spiral.

The Ducks were captained by long-time Toronto nemesis Radko Gudas. Rushing to stop a Matthews’ scoring attempt, Gudas deliberately hit him knee-on-knee, knocking him out for the season. Many expected one or more of the four other Leafs on the ice, Morgan Rielly, Brandon Carlo, Nylander and Easton Cowan, to jump Gudas, but he went to the box enduring only minor chirping.

That lack of physical response, coupled with the lost season under Berube and three less-than-value deadline trades by sell-mode general manager Brad Treliving, triggered massive condemnation from Leafs Nation.

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From that moment, the Leafs dropped the gloves at the slightest provocation, but they’d not be able to live down that moment of inaction. It contributed to Treliving’s firing a few weeks later and reflected poorly on Berube’s ability to inspire his troops.

Many have cited the protection debate as a reason Matthews might be looking for an exit before the final two years of his contact expire. Matthews has not been made available by the team to comment on anything since his surgery, expected to address the media at locker cleanout Thursday.

He did pop up into Monday’s final home game, of all things to award an intermission contest winner two season’s tickets for next year.

Willy nilly

Nylander has been more enigmatic than ever this season, in which he’ll become the first Swede to lead the team in points since Sundin.

While considered a stronger team player behind the scenes – if you go by NHL-sponsored TV series – his too cool for school attitude sometimes backfires.

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In January, sitting in a box full of injured and scratched teammates, Nylander spotted a broadcast camera trained on the group and gave a goofy, grinning middle finger. If trying to be funny, the gesture, in the midst of a 4-1 loss to Colorado and a 1-4-1 skid, was not great comic timing.

Say it ain’t so

Joe Bowen’s 44th and final season as the voice of the Leafs ended anti-climactically – no farewell NHL tour in keeping with MLSE’s cost cutting and no playoff appearance by his beloved team.

His employers did have a tribute night in December, but Holy Mackinaw, this is not the exit he or anyone wanted after 3,834 games.

Crowd control

While CEO Keith Pelley disputed the lower game night attendance that is provided to media and said bean counters assure him ticket renewals for next year are steady, there was an average of almost 200 fewer bodies at Scotiabank Arena from ‘24-25, based on raw league game sheets.

The team’s annual outdoor practice was twice cursed, cancelled at a rink in Etobicoke by extreme cold weather, followed by its indoor contingency event at Mattamy Athletic Centre shelved by a snowstorm.

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The club eventually provided a 3-on-3 tournament at SBA, best remembered for Woll winning a Simon Sez contest and Troy Stecher’s 9-year-old Bernese mountain dog Phoebe beating all canine comers in a race.

But on the same ice Monday, Stecher accidentally shot the puck in his own net trying to wrest it from Dallas forward Arttu Hyry. It opened the door for the Stars to rally from a multi-goal deficit a second time to win.

Which many fans were fine with, as the result improved chances of a bottom-five finish by Toronto and retention of its first-round draft pick in June from Boston in one of Treliving’s unpopular 2025 trades.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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