As much as the title of this article is facetious, it is actually the type of thing the rest of the 2025-26 Maple Leafs’ season is now about.

The first period of this game in Montreal is exactly what the remainder of the season should not be about. Even if the goal is tanking, it can be done with dignity and with some lessons and development goals accomplished along the way. There is nothing to be gained from getting 4:1’d in shot attempts and barely touching the puck all period.

The veteran leaders on the team, starting with the captain, need to dig in and provide more in these instances — to set a better example, and to help set up shifts for the Cowans, Quillans, and the Groulxs on the team to get into the game, touch the puck, and play on offense some more. When veteran leaders allow the ice to tilt completely against them with little pushback, it creates constant defensive-zone draws and a game flow where the team is simply hanging on/dumping and changing, at best, as the opposition attacks in waves. For the Quillans of the world, it’s a bit like trying to catch a moving train. It doesn’t leave the game in a good spot for those cutting their teeth, finding their footing, and developing confidence at the NHL level.

It got better as the night wore on, and the final 40 minutes looked mostly like what the Leafs’ goal should be the rest of the way, with a reasonable competitive balance to the game against a current playoff team. Encouragingly, Easton Cowan may have been the Leafs’ biggest driver in making the game competitive again — hounding pucks, taking on defenders, drawing a penalty, setting up a William Nylander goal with a nice give-and-go play, and finishing at over 18 minutes in ice time. Bo Groulx grew into the game by the third period, attacking the slot, taking on defenders, and firing a handful of dangerous shot attempts (he finished at over 14 minutes in ice time). Jacob Quillan’s minutes need to be higher, or there isn’t much of a point in him dressing at this level, but there was at least something learned from this game.

[Side note: My favourite moment of the entire game might have been Nick Robertson throwing his stick down, just about to fight Brendan Gallagher, before Jake McCabe swooped in following Gallagher’s hit on Cowan. Robertson clearly has his flaws, but his balls for his size are really admirable (it’s also why he’d get hurt a lot earlier in his career, as he wouldn’t shy away/pick his spots when engaging in battles against bigger players). It’s hard to picture certain other core members ever responding that way when the kid took a hit.]

If we rewind to the 2015-16 season, when the Leafs mastered the dignified tank followed by a franchise-changing lottery win, the likes of Connor Brown, Zach Hyman, and William Nylander all cut their teeth inside a reasonably competitive environment — not highly competitive every single game, but more often than not, it was dignified and respectable.

When Zach Hyman was first recalled to the NHL, for example, the Leafs lost four straight one-goal games before winning six of their next seven. Hyman scored four goals in those games and played 15+ minutes regularly. Connor Brown played seven games in March of that tank season; the Leafs won half of them, including a three-point and a two-point game for Brown. Not a rookie but still a young player in the league at the time, centerman Nazem Kadri developed significantly under Mike Babcock that season while learning the rigors of playing inside tough matchups in the NHL. The Leafs benefitted from those development gains when they introduced the aforementioned rookies, plus Auston Matthews, on a full-time basis the following season, starting a long run of playoff appearances that will now end this season.

It’s entirely likely the Groulxs and Quillans of the world are not of the Zach Hyman calibre — and probably not even the Connor Brown calibre — as the Leafs’ prospect pipeline is clearly in a very different position now than it was then. Regardless, this is what the rest of this Leafs season should be about. Entirely writing off 20 games because there is some chance at a top-five pick or a lottery ball breaking their way, in a 32-team league as competitive as the NHL, is putting yourself behind the eight ball, and it will be felt down the road. They need to push forward on proper player development and evaluation objectives in each remaining game, set the right examples for younger kids, and build momentum in those areas for next year. Games like this one for Cowan — 18+ minutes, assist on the only Leaf goal, drew a penalty, constantly involved, took a big hit and survived, etc— matter. How you lose matters.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

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Alec Brownscombe
https://twitter.com/MapleLeafsHS
Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at [email protected].

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