Time is running out for the Toronto Maple Leafs to get their season moving in the right direction. Nearing the halfway point of the campaign, the Leafs sit dead last in the Eastern Conference.

There have been a number of issues that have plagued the Maple Leafs from the beginning – captain Auston Matthews has not played to his standard and is on pace to finish with a career-worst 36 goals this season, the team has struggled to replace the production of winger Mitch Marner – who departed for the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency – and injuries have prevented a consistent lineup from taking the ice on a day to day basis. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, has been the performance of the usually-dependable power-play unit.

Toronto has dropped three games in a row by a combined score of 14-4, and five of its last six. Those poor results have dropped the Maple Leafs near the bottom of the Eastern Conference in goal differential.

TeamGoals scoredGoals allowedDifferentialRecordDevils102108-620-15-1Penguins107113-615-11-9Sabres109115-617-14-4Maple Leafs109118-915-15-4Blue Jackets108125-1715-15-6

Following a 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday, head coach Craig Berube had no answers for the media. “Ask those guys, not me,” the second-year Leafs bench boss told reporters when asked why the Capitals played with more urgency and passion than the Leafs did.

In an attempt to find an answer for the struggles of the team, the Maple Leafs fired assistant coach Marc Savard on Monday after a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Stars on the weekend

Savard was hired before the 2024-25 campaign and was given control of the power play. The results on the power play this year have been dreadful.

Toronto has scored just 12 goals on the power play this season, and their 13.3 per cent conversion rate with the man advantage is the worst in the NHL. That is a sharp decline from years prior, where the Maple Leafs have consistently employed one of the strongest power-play units in the league.

SeasonPower play goals per gamePower play %League Rank2025-260.3413.3322024-250.6624.892023-240.7023.972022-230.7826.022021-220.7727.31

“The power play has actually been getting better,” Berube said after the loss to the Capitals, when they went 0-for-5 on the power play for the first time all season. “But tonight, it was God-awful, in my opinion. The other unit did some good things. They had a couple of opportunities and just misfired, or it didn’t go in. They had a couple of chances.”

According to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, the team plans to search in-house for a solution rather than hire another coach to take over the power-play unit.

Power-play production historically tends to account for roughly 20-25 per cent of a team’s goals through the entire season – or at least it has for the Maple Leafs in recent years. If the power play had been producing at even a league-average rate this year, the Maple Leafs could be in a much healthier spot in the standings.

When it comes to health, the season has not gone according to plan for the Maple Leafs either – especially not in the crease.

Top goaltender Anthony Stolarz has played in just 13 games and will be out for an extended period of time after suffering an upper-body injury in November. The 32-year-old netminder – who owned the league’s top save percentage at .926 a season ago and finished fifth in Vezina Trophy voting – struggled to start the season. He has a career-worst .884 save percentage and has a 3.51 goals-against average.

Berube told reporters earlier in the year that he thought Stolarz may have been overused – which was due partly to the fact that Toronto’s second goaltender, Joseph Woll, was away from the team to start the year while dealing with a personal matter and has also missed time with an injury.

The Maple Leafs have seen five goaltenders take the crease this season, with four of them making starts – and we’re not even at the midpoint of the campaign. Without a goaltender able to take consistent control of the crease, the team has allowed 3.34 goals per game, good for 22nd in the league. That is a stark decline from the success the Leafs tandem of Woll and Stolarz had a year ago, and the highest number of goals allowed per game by the Maple Leafs since the 2008-09 season.

SeasonGoals allowed per gameLeague rankGoaltenders used2025-263.342252024-252.79842023-243.182132022-232.68752021-223.07195

One thing working in Toronto’s favour to help the team make a turnaround and push for a playoff spot is the parity in the Eastern Conference this year. Despite sitting last in the standings among the 16 teams, the Leafs are only 10 points behind the Atlantic Division-leading Detroit Red Wings, and 12 behind the Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes.

The Maple Leafs have a chance to get the turnaround started when they play against the Pittsburgh Penguins – a team that snapped a seven-game losing streak on Sunday – in a matinee on Tuesday.