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Published Mar 05, 2026 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 4 minute read
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New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin eyes a rebound as Leafs Matias Maccelli circles the net behind him on Thursday, March 5, 2026, in New York. Photo by Frank Franklin II /AP PhotoArticle content
The end of the 2025-26 Maple Leafs season can’t come soon enough.
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The Leafs took another one on the chin on Thursday night, losing 6-2 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
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We’re talking about falling to a Rangers team that not only is last in the Eastern Conference, but had gone 18 games at home without winning in regulation. The Rangers had most recently won in regulation at MSG on Nov. 24 against St. Louis.
Alexis Lafrenière scored the winner at 5:38 of the third period, breaking a 2-2 tie, when he tipped a Mika Zibanejad shot past Leafs goalie Joseph Woll.
Jaroslav Chlemar, Zibanejad and Will Cuylle, into an empty net, also scored in the third as the Leafs surrendered without so much as a whimper.
“Oh, definitely frustrated,” Leafs coach Craig Berube told media in New York after the game. “Pissed off.
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“The games are right there and we don’t push as a team hard enough to win them.”
With the National Hockey League trade deadline coming at 3 p.m. EST on Friday, the Leafs again went the asset management route and scratched forwards Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton and defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson for the second game in a row.
Each of the three is a strong candidate to be dealt.
Three takeaways:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
The Leafs, if they’re capable, need to get over themselves.
If you’re going to play for pride and the guy next to you in the dressing room, what are you waiting for?
We get it. This group hasn’t been in this position in the standings before. The looming trade deadline has been a different animal this year because the club is selling, not buying. So there’s more concern in the room than what there has been in the past.
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Still, though, the response has been to go curl up and wait for it all to go away?
That’s how the Leafs have been playing since the break for the Winter Olympics ended. They’re 0-4-2 since the U.S. beat Canada in overtime to win gold in Milan.
It will get no easier, not that it would, once the deadline passes. The Leafs’ next seven matches, starting on Saturday at home against Tampa Bay, are against teams presently in a playoff position.
Since Jan. 12, when the Leafs briefly climbed into a wild-card spot with a win in Colorado, Toronto is 4-10-4 in 18 games.
“It’s tough during this stretch,” captain Auston Matthews told media afterward. “It hasn’t been easy, with the results, the trade deadline, all that stuff.
“But we have to find a way to bear down and find a way to get a hold of one of these games and turn the tide.”
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Said Woll: “It sucks. It sucks losing. It sucks being in this position. I haven’t been in this position since I’ve been here, and it’s not fun, selling or whatever that might be. It sucks. I hate it. It’s way more fun when you’re winning. We have to get out of this slump regardless of what the rest of this season looks like.”
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Play VideoMATTHEWS CAN’T SCORE
Matthews’ goal slump has hit 10 games, his longest drought in the NHL since his rookie season, when he went 13 games without scoring in October/November of 2016.
Matthews has one goal in his past 14 games.
“I think these last three games (18 shots on goal in total), I’ve had a lot of good chances,” Matthews said. “Sometimes you go through these stretches and you have to grind your way out of them.”
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If there is a coaching change once this wasted season is over, whoever takes over from Berube will have to strive to unlock Matthews’ offensive talents. Of course, that’s if Matthews wants to be part of the Leafs going forward. There hasn’t been any indication that he wants to leave, yet who knows what the off-season will bring?
Matthews has 26 goals, well short of where he should be. He doesn’t get the space he once did and as a result his lethal shot mostly has been missing.
Matthews’ decrease in production is one of the many reasons the Leafs will miss the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
COWAN COMES THROUGH
The teams entered the second intermission tied 2-2 after the Leafs had a pair of one-goal leads.
Matias Maccelli scored for the second consecutive game when he tapped a William Nylander pass behind Igor Shesterkin 13 seconds into the first period.
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At 6:45, Cuylle tipped a Braden Schneider shot past Woll after the Leafs failed to get organized defensively.
Toronto went up 2-1 at 5:27 of the second period when Easton Cowan snapped a shot past Shesterkin on the short side for his first goal in 13 games.
At 7:29, Vladislav Gavrikov took advantage of a large rebound and scored on a Rangers power play as Morgan Rielly served a hooking minor.
For Cowan, the goal had to be a confidence boost. It was his first in 13 games, and came off a quick shot with accuracy. It’s on the 20-year-old rookie to carry that forward.
There’s no reason to take Cowan out of the lineup now, no matter what happens trade-wise with the Leafs on Friday.
Let him further learn the ropes in the NHL, a process that should set him up better to become more of a contributor for the Leafs next season.
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