Published Jan 11, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 1\u00a0hour ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 10 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n This has been more than a strange half-season for the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Mitch Marner left for Vegas and they have more regular-season wins than the Golden Knights heading into Saturday night. Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Sometimes you can\u2019t explain hockey. The ultimate team sport doesn\u2019t always compute to individual performance. Logically, you shouldn\u2019t be better without your best players. But in this recent streak with Nylander<\/a> out the previous six games, the Leafs<\/a> haven\u2019t lost in regulation time.<\/p>\n Your Midday Sun<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Toronto also played most of the first half of the NHL season without its top right-side defencemen and have gone beyond the halfway point \u2014 and who knows how much farther \u2014 without having their No. 1 and No. 2 goaltenders dressed for the same game.<\/p>\n Heading into Hockey Night In Canada against the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> in a season that has appeared both dreadful and encouraging, the Leafs are on pace for 93 points, currently two points out of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n The Red Wings, Flyers, Islanders and Penguins are in playoff positions right now \u2014 but will they be at the end of the season?<\/p>\n And will the Leafs?<\/a> Will the Florida Panthers? Will the Buffalo Sabres finally find a way? Will the New Jersey Devils stop beating themselves? Can the Ottawa Senators get a save or two, get off social media and corral the occasional win?<\/p>\n Can anyone accurately predict the eight playoff teams in the East? And make sense of a season that doesn\u2019t seem to make sense across the board?<\/p>\n THIS AND THAT<\/p>\n I started thinking about this a lot, after Auston Matthews<\/a> passed Mats Sundin for the most goals in Leafs history: Who is the greatest player in Leafs history? Dave Keon was anointed that spot when the Leafs named their all-time team in 2016. I believe Keon is about the 40th best centre to ever play, somewhere in that range anyhow. But then I started looking closer at Borje Salming\u2019s career. He might be a top-15 or top-20 defenceman of all time. Matthews and Sundin are not much above or below Keon on any list of the greatest centres to ever play in Toronto. Maybe it should be the late Salming as No. 1. When Keon was named the greatest Leaf, Salming was No. 8 on the list behind Darryl Sittler, Sundin, Johnny Bower, Tim Horton along with older Leafs Syl Apps and Ted Kennedy. The ranking, it says here, is way too low for the elite game changing defenceman \u2026 Since he entered the NHL in 2013, no winger has scored more points than Tampa\u2019s Nikita Kucherov. He has 110 points more than Patrick Kane, 129 more than Alex Ovechkin. Kucherov\u2019s points per game are second among all players behind only Connor McDavid in his career. And Kucherov still doesn\u2019t get enough credit for what he does \u2026 If you didn\u2019t know this already, you should now: Macklin Celebrini is a rather incredible hockey player. He has 67 points in half a season after scoring 63 in his rookie year in San Jose, and is 37 points ahead of anyone else on his team. He\u2019s in the halfway Hart Trophy race with Nathan MacKinnon and McDavid. Some are saying that Celebrini should win the Hart if San Jose makes the playoffs. And maybe he should. But what if MacKinnon, on pace for 68 goals, scores 70? Who do you vote for then? \u2026 According to Forbes Magazine, the Dallas Cowboys are the most profitable team in professional sports. No. 3 on their list was the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> with the Maple Leafs coming in at ninth overall \u2026 Cale Makar is the default halfway winner of the Norris Trophy, for defenceman of the year. Not far behind him, Zach Werenski in Columbus. And it will be interesting to see what Quinn Hughes<\/a> does in the second half. In 12 games with the Minnesota Wild, he has 12 points and the Wild has lost just two games in regulation time \u2026 Zayne Parekh<\/a> got in trouble for saying that hockey players are like \u201crobots\u201d with \u201cno personality.\u201d You should never get in trouble for speaking the truth.<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n HEAR AND THERE<\/p>\n Still no word on Bo Bichette<\/a>, Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger and Alex Bregman, the free agents who are holding up this baseball winter. It\u2019s hard to figure why the Jays, who based their entire offence on putting balls in play last season, haven\u2019t signed Bichette yet. He led the club in batting average, in hits, in doubles and RBIs and was third in OPS. I\u2019d rather have a sure thing at second base in Bichette than a maybe at third base for $16 million in Kazuma Okamoto. The Phillies like Bichette but don\u2019t really have the money to sign him \u2026 Yes, the Jays were great offensively in the playoffs against the Yankees and the Mariners without Bichette. You can do that when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is hitting to a 1.66 OPS against the Yankees, when George Springer is hitting four home runs against the Yanks and Mariners and Ernie Clement is hitting .411 in the playoffs. But was still Bichette who hit what should have been the World Series-winning home run in Game 7 against the Dodgers \u2026 Once one of the big free agents signs, the market should open up. It seems as though the Yankees, Phillies and Dodgers have spent their money so you wonder what\u2019s left for the four big bats available \u2026 Important to know: Just because the Jays are spending money all over the place, doesn\u2019t assure them of anything. The Mets are the highest spending team in baseball. They last won the World Series 40 years ago. The Yankees last won in 2009, the Phillies in 2008. The Dodgers are the only team in baseball that has figured out how to spend big and win big at the same time \u2026 Since the turn of the century, the Astros and the Royals are the only teams to lose the World Series and come back to win it the following year.<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n SCENE AND HEARD<\/p>\n I had the good fortune to get to know the legendary Glenn Hall<\/a> when he was the goalies coach with the Calgary Flames<\/a> in the early 1980s. What a delightful gentleman with a self-deprecating sense of humour. Before Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur came along, I thought Hall was the best goaltender I\u2019d ever seen. And I saw him pretty late in his career. The number that will live forever: 502. Hall played that many games in a row in goal without a mask and playing butterfly style, which is hard on your knees and your hips. But he did it at his time when he was the best in the game \u2026 Truth in Maple Leafs numbers: Joseph Woll has made six consecutive starts in his career. Anthony Stolarz has made four \u2026 In today\u2019s NHL, I would not get the opportunity to meet a Glenn Hall around most teams. You don\u2019t get much access to assistant coaches anymore. The NHL could learn from baseball and football about making assistant coaches more available to media \u2026 Dave Branch would answer his phone with: \u201cWhat is it this time?\u201d It was me calling. He usually followed that up with: \u201cHow come you don\u2019t call me on good days?\u201d the former chief of junior hockey in Canada would say. He usually knew why I was calling. There was an incident or a brawl or a hazing or a player found under a bus to clear customs, the crazy stuff that happens in junior hockey. And he always had an answer, an opinion and a sharp decision, calm and well-spoken: He didn\u2019t duck controversy. He didn\u2019t play favourites. He didn\u2019t talk down to the media. He was a hockey giant, gone too soon \u2026 The 1982 NHL all-star game was in Washington. And the night before the game, Bill Wirtz, owner of the Blackhawks, stayed up half the night drinking in a lobby bar with a group of hockey writers. About 2 in the morning, he announced: \u201cI\u2019m going to fire (coach Keith) Magnuson\u2019s ass.\u201d We kept drinking and eventually I went to bed. About 7 in the morning, I got a call from the Chicago Tribune reporter. He asked if I was going to report the apparent Magnuson firing. I went back to sleep. The afternoon edition of the Tribune reported that Magnuson was on his way out. Only problem was: Nobody told Bob Pulford, the general manager of the Blackhawks about Wirtz\u2019s tirade of the night before. Pulford vehemently denied that a coach firing was apparent. The day after the all-star game, the Hawks did fire Magnuson. Pulford, the former Leafs legend who passed away this week, announced the firing.<\/p>\n Advertisement 6<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n SCENE AND HEARD<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0509nylander-e1746743170834.jpg\")
Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander returned to the lineup on Saturday night. Photo by Claus Andersen \/Getty ImagesArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.3.0\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tsun.svg\"){kind=logo}
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William Nylander, still Toronto\u2019s leading point-getter, has been hurt a few times, and the Leafs\u2019 record without him has been superb. In 10 games without their most electric forward, the Leafs have gone 6-1-3. And the three-time 40-goal scorer, Nylander, has the highest shooting percentage of his career and may end up with the lowest number of goals scored. Trying explaining that one to your stats friends.
Craig Berube has gone from confident to almost fired, to team falling apart, to seemingly having solved this mess in just more than 40 games. He looked like the wrong man for the job in October and November and now the team is playing his kind of hockey and succeeding in the muddle of the goo that is the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n![\"opening](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.3.0\/websites\/images\/newsletters\/icon-sun-middaySun.svg\"\/){kind=icon}
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