coauthored by Alec Brownscombe & Anthony Petrielli

The Maple Leafs saved our favourite win of the season so far for the last game of 2025.

The relationship between fans and players has been a topic of debate lately in Leafland, partly sparked by Auston Matthews’ goal celebration against Chicago, in which he gestured to his ear at his own home crowd (who previously booed the team’s tepid effort), drawing mixed reactions. Reading between the lines, it has seemed from the outside like the player group — or some of the leaders in it, at least — might think the crowd should do more to stay on the team’s side and help get them going in games, while the fans have (fairly) felt like the players need to give them more reasons to get fired up with their effort level on the ice. 

In the third period of this game, we heard/saw clear evidence that the Toronto crowd can be one of the best in the league when they see a hard-working, physically engaged on-ice product. The Matthew Knies vs. Nico Hischier fight will be the most memorable example of the team’s physicality in this one, but it wasn’t just about the one bout. The Leafs were battling, finishing checks, and getting in the shooting lanes (Jake McCabe alone was credited with eight shot blocks). Earlier in the third period, before the Knies fight, Simon Benoit took a run at Timo Meier. After the Knies fight, Robertson stood up Brendan Dillon as Dillon tried to throw a hit along the boards; Dillon responded by roughing up Robertson, to which Benoit stepped in, and when Dillon went to skate away, Nic Roy dropped Dillon to the ice.

There are way too many games at the SBA where no Leafs player makes noteworthy contact with an opposing player, and Leafs fans are mostly watching a bunch of cardio on the ice while hoping the team scores some goals. This was a good, engaged effort tonight, and the fans responded accordingly. It was far from a perfect performance, but a Leafs lineup decimated by injuries worked their bags off in this game and played hard for each other throughout. No crowd appreciates that kind of effort more than the Leafs‘ fan base.

As for the game on the scoreboard, the special teams swung it in the Leafs’ favour. We’re seeing during this recent 3-0-1 stretch just how much of a difference a functioning power play makes and how much it translates over to five-on-five momentum. There was no more stark an example than in this game, as the Leafs looked a little overwhelmed at times in the early going by the Devils’ Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier lines. They got the saves they needed from Joseph Woll, and when they went to a couple of power plays in the first period, they found their legs and life.

Two power-play goals created by Nick Robertson and Bobby McMann — the one finished by Nic Roy technically came just after the man advantage expired — earned the Leafs not just the lead but some insurance in the first half of the game. They found one more insurance goal via their Steven Lorentz – Jacob Quillan – Calle Jarnkrok fourth line in the third period before defending hard to the end to protect Joseph Woll’s well-earned shutout. 

Craig Berube may have misused the “character win” label after the aforementioned Chicago game, but this was a true character win for him to hang his hat on. It was another night when making up ground quickly in the East is quite difficult, due to three-point games and other competition winning. Still, maybe this mini-winning streak, punctuated by this character win by a decimated lineup, can be a rallying point for this team as we turn the page to 2026.

If William Nylander and Auston Matthews are back in the lineup for Thursday’s game, let’s hope they play like they’re inspired by what their teammates did tonight.

Post-Game Notes

– The Matthew Knies – John Tavares – Max Domi line was hugely underwater for most of the night while splitting their time between the Hughes and Hischier matchups: shot attempts were 16-1 for the Devils, the line’s xGF was 0%, and they took all three of the team’s minor penalties (one was a hold by Benoit, but this line was stuck in their own zone at the time). The silver lining, besides not getting scored on, was that Knies recognized there are other ways to impact a game positively when you’re built like a Mack truck. He manhandled Hischier, and the rest of the team looked appropriately fired up.

– We have been as hard on the team as anyone about their inability to control play this season, and while the numbers appear lopsided against the Leafs again in this one, it didn’t do the game justice. As noted above, the entire gap came courtesy of the Leafs’ top line. Remove their minutes, and the Leafs actually out-attempted New Jersey 35-34 at five-on-five. Further, the Devils entered the third period down two goals, yet with six minutes left, they had just six shots on net in the period (to the Leafs’ seven), and the Leafs had scored a third goal. Woll was good early on and made some big saves primarily through the first two periods, but the Leafs locked it down well in the third and generated some long stretches of sustained cycles and offensive-zone time, even if it wasn’t leading to significant shot volume.

– Jake McCabe was wearing an A in this game and was very much a leader on the ice. He played nearly 24 minutes, blocked eight shots, and finished at plus-two. His nice read to cut out a play in the neutral zone helped draw the first Toronto power play, and he made several good first passes to start breakouts. He’s now at +21 on the season while playing over 22 minutes a night, largely against top competition, and starting just 27% of his shifts in the offensive zone (his 256 defensive-zone faceoffs are 52 more than the Leafs’ next-highest, OEL). Considering Tavares and Nylander have slowed down quite a bit in this recent segment, Woll has been really good but has missed a lot of time, and Matthews hasn’t taken flight fully, there is good case to be made for McCabe as the team’s MVP through the first half of the season, even if there was a rocky stretch when he was forced over to the right side.

– The Leafs, with their injury situations, needed to win the special teams and goaltending battles to emerge with a positive result from this game, and they did just that. In the first 35 games of the season, the Leafs were -6 on special teams despite their penalty kill ranking second in the NHL in goal differential (16 against, two for, or a -14 GD). Before December 22/the Marc Savard firing, the Leafs’ power play was dead last in goal differential at +8 (12 goals for, four against). It’s, of course, no coincidence that they’re at +4 on special teams (+5 if we count the second one as a PPG tonight) during their seven-out-of-eight-points stretch.

The Leafs’ power play recorded 13 of their 22 shots on goal through 40 minutes of this game. Simplicity, quick puck movement, shooting their way in, crashing the net, working to get pucks back, effectively using the bumper, and having a coach with a real plan have quickly made the units dangerous. This was never a talent issue; they were poorly coached and often outworked. 

– The trio of Nick Robertson – Nic Roy – Easton Cowan looked like a makeshift unit on paper, but it was Toronto’s best line on this night. Robertson collected two points, and Roy scored, but all of it came on the power play (Roy scored right as the power play expired), so the actual line didn’t combine for a goal. Still, it understates their value in this one. Among Leafs forwards, only Tavares and Domi (!) played more than Roy, who was really effective working the walls to create space for his two undersized wingers. Whenever Cowan and Robertson possessed the puck in the offensive zone and didn’t have a play available, they knew they could cycle it low, where Roy would hang onto it.

Cowan mustered a good response after a poor game against Detroit, including one nice rush where he picked off an errant pass and burst down the ice, taking Dougie Hamilton wide for a good shot on net. Robertson has five points in his last three games and has been one of the Leafs’ best players since the Christmas break. The coaching staff sheltered this trio (they matched up against New Jersey’s third line all night), but they tilted the ice and did their job.

– Just as Robertson has been flying coming out of the break, so too has Bobby McMann. His speed was a problem all night for New Jersey as he produced a goal and an assist. The 1-0 goal highlighted something we already knew about his skill set: McMann can really shoot the puck. There was no real screen in front of Jacob Markstrom on his goal, but McMann beat him cleanly from just inside the top of the circle. It wasn’t even a post-and-in type of goal. He just ripped it by the goalie.

McMann is up to 20 points in 38 games now, a 26-goal 82-game pace. He’s helped revitalize the top line, and while playing with Laughton and Maccelli tonight due to the injuries, he still managed to be one of the Leafs’ best players.

– It was unfortunate that Jacob Quillan didn’t pick up an assist on the Lorentz/Jarnkrok goal for his first NHL point. It looked like he was directly involved in the play, as he helped create the turnover that led to the goal, but he didn’t receive any credit for it on the scoresheet. Either way, Quillan’s speed was once again noticeable, and he was involved in a few nice cycling sequences to hem New Jersey in the offensive zone. He only won 40% of his faceoffs and played just over seven minutes in total, but we can see an NHL player in there, one who plays a predictable game with pace and is a natural center. The upside might be limited overall, but he’s deserving of a real look at some point. 

– If Robertson is a scratch and score guarantee, it’s also become a guarantee that Simon Benoit will be a missile after some time in the press box. Benoit played just 15:57 in his return to the lineup, which was the lowest among all Leafs defensemen, but he was simple and effective in his minutes, including taking a notable run at Meier. He also came to Robertson’s defense when he got into a scuffle with the much bigger Brendan Dillon.

It’s pretty simple with Benoit: he needs to be physical to be effective. He’s not great with the puck, and he’s not going to bring much of anything offensively as a result, so he needs to be physical and grind defensively. Benoit actually played more against Jack Hughes than any other Devils forward — a decent chunk of time at 5:40 — and he sawed it off dead even, giving up about nothing to the Hughes-led units in those minutes. Only McCabe and OEL played more against Hughes on the Leafs’ defense, and considering Hughes walked into Toronto and thoroughly embarrassed them earlier this season, this was a great response.  

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/Joe Bowen: Maple Leafs 4 vs. Devils 0

 

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