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Chicago Blackhawks centre Teuvo Teravainen (86) scores against the Toronto Maple Leafs during their game at the United Center on Saturday.Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters
Last weekend, as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season was just beginning to slide into the ditch, head coach Craig Berube still had the luxury of seeming angry.
His team laid down on the ice in the third period and played dead – one of its cute, new tricks. Carolina put five by them, but it could have been 15.
Berube doesn’t ever vary far from neutral on the emotional register, one way or the other, but you could see the heat coming off him afterward. Those shark eyes of his had gone black.
“Immaturity” was the buzzword that night, as if the Leafs just discovered their love of hockey last year, as they were all graduating high school. Berube agreed with it, and it became the next day’s story. But his post-game was more notable for the thing that wasn’t said.
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At one point, Berube listed off all the things that add up to good team defence.
“We don’t have any of that right now,” he said.
Instead of inching into the next questions, someone shot back, “How do you change that?”
Berube was taken by surprise, and had an honest, public moment with himself. It lasted maybe a second. You could see him thinking hard about what direction he was going to head. One way – honesty and unemployment – or the other – a little more money and a lot more pain.
He licked his lips and almost said the obvious thing – I don’t know.
But they pay him to know, so what he said instead was, “Well, like I said, just keep working at it.” Then he blathered on for a while in the hopes no one had noticed.
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Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube, seen here speaking with his players during a timeout in a game last month against Nashville, is searching for answers as his team sits in second-last place in the Atlantic Division.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Leafs have lost three more since. That’s five in a row. On Saturday, they played a statement game in Chicago. Their statement was, ‘Is it bedtime yet?’ Another third period collapse. Another one goal regulation loss.
How bad is it? Berube has shifted into disappointed dad mode.
“Right now, we’re just a little bit unconfident I’d say” – he even giggled, which is terrifying.
A lot of people, including Berube, have taken a run at a diagnosis – too old, too slow, crummy defence, don’t care, crap coaching, dreadful goaltending, total systemic collapse.
Here’s the simpler way to say all that – the Leafs are bad again.
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Not bad in some specific, fixable way. Bad all over. Inept from front to back. A weird combo of bored and scared. John Tavares is their best player now. Think of that and shudder.
I have to say – thank God. It’s been too long. Toronto doesn’t feel right when the Leafs are good. Like the city doesn’t know its purpose any more.
You will be having trouble accepting this. For a long time now, maybe a decent-sized chunk of your life, the Leafs have been good.
Hey, remember when Brendan Shanahan was hired and, having taken a tour of the office, decided the best way to improve morale was to start strapping dynamite to the girders? That’s so long ago.
You can identify pretty precisely the moment the Leafs got good – late April, 2017. The core was in place, but not yet bolted tight. Toronto played Washington in the first round of the postseason and stood in the middle of the metaphoric ring punching. They lost, but it was a happy defeat (the last one of those).
In that moment, even the leeriest mind was changed. The Leafs were good. At least for a summer.
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Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly (44) and his team have picked up just a point, via an overtime loss to the Kings, in their last five games.Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters
The performances got worse, but the mindset – one of Berube’s favourite words – was resilient. Even when they were bad, it was widely agreed that the Leafs were good. At the very least, that they should be good. And when it turned out they weren’t good, that they would be good the next time.
Let’s take a moment to give a sincere congratulations to everyone in the organization, top to bottom. For more than eight years, they convinced Toronto Maple Leafs fans that this evidently not-very-good team was good.
Nine seasons, two playoff round wins, and the Leafs still featured near the top of every pre-campaign prognostication. Yes, Washington was a bit better, or Boston, or Tampa, or Florida – the teams on top changed – but the Leafs were permanently right there. Except they weren’t.
That idea – that the Leafs were a few months from becoming the Harlem Globetrotters – still held a month ago. Sure, bad start to the season, but doesn’t Edmonton do this every year? And you don’t want to be like Winnipeg and blow your tanks in November? Giving up a million goals and playing .500 hockey is actually good in Toronto terms. Keeps them honest.
The standard got lower and lower, but the faith remained. I know who killed it – Addison Barger.
Barger is a sixth-round draft pick with ‘career journeyman’ written all over him, who got promoted to the big leagues because the Blue Jays couldn’t find anyone better and then he turned into Willie Mays. When he hit that grand slam in the first game of the World Series, it was over for the Leafs.
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Addison Barger’s Game 1 grand slam homer showed Toronto sports fans what potential actually looks like.Nick Turchiaro/Reuters
After eight years of kidding itself, the city had an up-close look at what potential actually looked like – it shows up in games that matter. It cares. It hasn’t got its excuses memorized beforehand.
In order to pile on the Jays bandwagon, people had to get honest with themselves. If the Jays are what a good team looks like, then the Leafs are bad. Even the Leafs have accepted this. That look on their faces – it’s not confusion. It’s realization.
It’s not the GM’s fault or the coaches’ fault or Auston Matthews’ fault. It’s just a return to typical marketplace conditions after a period of irrational exuberance. Everyone lived beyond their means. Everyone’s getting pantsed in the crash.
So RIP to the good Leafs (April, 2017 – October, 2025). They weren’t much fun, but they proved that all of us still have a childlike capacity to kid ourselves.
Welcome back to the bad Leafs (November, 2025 – present). We packed up all your hairshirts and put them in the basement. I’ll bet they still fit.
