MONTREAL — Team Tank welcomes all new employees.
Defeat is a new victory.
From now until April 15th, every day is Opposition Day.
Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ drop down the leaderboard has been so aggressive and steep that anything general manager Brad Treliving gets for failing to protect his 2026 first-round draft pick anywhere in the top 10 could be debatable.
With a little lottery luck and more performances like Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, these once-powerful Leafs could actually drop to the bottom five of the NHL and eventually retain the pick they surrendered to Boston (an expensive package for Brandon Carlo).
Like an ambitious horror film, Maple Leafs is so bad it’s so good.
In a seemingly flipped Atlantic Division, the Maple Leafs went from start to finish.
The Leafs, still looking for their first win since the Olympic flame was extinguished, have now lost eight straight.
Year after year, their goal differential has plummeted by 63 goals, from plus-37 to minus-26 over 65 games. The Eastern Conference is the worst. They have two regulation wins in their last 21 attempts.
If not for a solid performance by goaltender Joseph Woll (.938) at the Bell Centre, the Maple Leafs would have taken a 33-18 lead over the younger, faster and suddenly more relevant Canadiens, but they wouldn’t have been able to stay in the game long enough to keep it in until Jake Evans threw the ball away in the final minute.
But what has changed now, after trading three legitimate forwards for picks and giving the Marlies more shifts, is that the Maple Leafs are embracing that poor situation.
“There was a lot of frustration and everything in the early minutes after the break,” said William Nylander, the only Leaf player to play.
“But now I don’t think being frustrated will help. So I think the atmosphere in the locker room has changed a little bit. And I think that’s made it a better environment for everyone.”
The fifth stage of grief is acceptance.
Nylander is slowly getting there.
The club’s top scorer said if someone had told him the Leafs would be here in mid-March – they would be much closer to bottom of the conference than a wild card spot – he wouldn’t have believed them.
“I mean, it’s hard to stay really optimistic in this situation,” said Nylander, who has seen only “slices” of quality hockey from his team recently.
The more sullen the Maple Leafs are, the better their lottery odds are.
The worst team in sports now sits 7th in the basement with a 6.5% chance of landing the first overall pick.
Toronto’s next seven opponents (Ducks, Sabres, Wild, Islanders, Hurricanes, Senators, Bruins) are all strong teams trying to bode well for the greater good.
Hockey lovers are supposed to live in a world where the Leafs and Canadiens are both great and trying to win at the same time. Oddly enough, a decisive Montreal win would benefit everyone involved as the Habs try to stave off a late push from the Ottawa Senators.
No one is crossing their fingers for a place in the bottom five ahead of Treliving. Treliving claims to have “pushed” for top-10 protection in the Carlo selection, but you’d be hard-pressed to find much precedent.
For example, the Florida Panthers, who are also in tank mode, picked up a top-10 2026 first-rounder in the Seth Jones trade with Chicago.
If you tank hard enough, Treliving can avoid at least the embarrassment of it.
Would you rather lose the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th overall picks to the rival Bruins? That alone is grounds for dismissal.
Ironically, what is good for the organization today does not reflect well on bench bosses who are focused on one mission.
“I just keep my head down, coach and try to get the guys to play their best hockey,” Craig Berube said. “That’s how I handle it. No one is happy that we’re in this situation, but we’ve got to keep fighting, keep working, keep building and try to get better.”
That also applies to Nylander, who was shocked.
“It’s definitely something new for him, but every player and team goes through adversity at some point in their career and this is adversity that he’s not typically used to,” Berube said. “He has to work his way up.”
If the Maple Leafs are eager to get out of this mess and regain relevance and respect next season, a top-five pick would go a long way.
Because missing the playoffs for nine consecutive years in spring hockey would be a one-off. This thing will get back on the rails. right?
“I mean, I hope it’s true,” Nylander said. “otherwise…”
The superstar’s thoughts are not over yet.
Instead, it bounced around like a bouncing lottery ball.
No one knows yet where they will settle.
• Auston Matthews’ goal drought reached 12 games. If he lasts one more game, he will tie the 2016 rookie record.
The captain now fired 47 shots in succession without hitting the string.
“It’s been a tough time for everyone, individually and as a team,” Matthews told reporters. “We are having a hard time generating offense and finding the back of the net.”
The call-up skated as a third-line center, got a successful penalty-killing shift, hit a few shots on net and skated in with 14:13 to play. There are at least five other Leafs forwards.
There is no reason why Berube-backed Groulx shouldn’t play on Thursday.
• John Tavares, 35, was left shocked after taking an enforced break during last season’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. We thought the Olympic break would be helpful for Illeif, who performed well in all competitions.
Tavares flew out of the gate and hit a slight wall. After scoring all three of his goals on the ice against Tuesday, he is now minus-22 in his last 20 games.
• Matthews, a basketball fan who swapped jerseys with Jason Kidd: “It was really cool. I loved watching him grow and we had people we knew in common. It’s nice to meet someone like that.”
• Scott Laughton struggled to perform offensively when he moved to Toronto last March. He wanted to help his young team so badly. The lack of influence ate away at him.
He freely admits that being traded for the first time was a tricky adjustment.
Perhaps having already experienced one such upheaval helped him in LA. In LA, he has already scored three points in two games.
Not-so-fun fact: Laughton has never had a multi-point game as a Leaf.
