![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\n\u201cTough for both teams,\u201d Berube told reporters Saturday morning. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought that, but circumstances, injuries \u2026 a lot of things play into it.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the way it goes sometimes in this league. It just shows the parity in this league. You can\u2019t take a breath. There\u2019s no easy teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite missing a boatload of injured regulars in the waning moments of a lost campaign, Florida topped Toronto 6-2 on a night that meant nothing other than draft lottery positioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these games are weird when you know you\u2019re out of the playoffs,\u201d Maple Leafs winger William Nylander said after scoring both his team\u2019s goals. \u201cWe\u2019ve been competing good. But I think they were competing better than us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Toronto (32-34-14) also has injuries, including captain and star centre Auston Matthews, defenceman Chris Tanev and now goaltender Anthony Stolarz, but the Original Six franchise\u2019s issues appeared long before the sick bay started to fill up, with the gaping hole left by Mitch Marner\u2019s summer departure among the biggest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to approach it like any other game and not get too concerned with where we\u2019re at,\u201d Maple Leafs netminder Joseph Woll said after his team fell to 0-4-1 over its last five contests. \u201cBut at the same time, obviously not very happy with the results recently.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to end the season on some kind of positive note,\u201d Nylander added. \u201cThat\u2019s the focus.\u201d <\/p>\n
Florida (38-38-4) was without 14 regulars Saturday, a long list led by captain Aleksander Barkov, who hasn\u2019t played at all this season, fellow forwards Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and Evan Rodrigues, along with blueliners Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov and Seth Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cRespect the game,\u201d Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of his group\u2019s approach with youngsters and call-ups occupying roster spots. \u201cI think we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida is set to miss the post-season for the first time since 2019, while Toronto hasn\u2019t sat out the NHL\u2019s annual spring dance in a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is difficult, no doubt about it,\u201d Berube, a former NHL enforcer and Cup winner as coach, said post-game Saturday of suiting up in meaningless contests. \u201cBut you gotta perform and you gotta play. You gotta compete. I thought we competed. We didn\u2019t go out there and not compete, but there\u2019s just mistakes. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s turnovers or different plays and situations, there\u2019s mistakes and they\u2019re finding the way in the net.\u201d <\/p>\n
FIRST STEP<\/p>\n
Maple Leafs defenceman William Villeneuve made his NHL debut after almost four full seasons in the American Hockey League with the Toronto Marlies.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que., who was selected 122nd overall in 2020, has 29 points (three goals, 26 assists) and 64 penalty minutes across 59 games in the AHL in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unbelievable,\u201d Villeneuve said. \u201cA great experience. Wasn\u2019t the result that we wanted, but I\u2019ll remember that day for rest of my life.\u201d <\/p>\n
BIG FAN<\/p>\n
Woll said he enjoyed watching Artur Akhtyamov make his first NHL start in Thursday\u2019s 5-3 road loss to the New York Islanders.<\/p>\n
The Russian netminder was under siege early \u2014 including 24 shots against in the first period \u2014 and finished with 39 saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love his game \u2026 he\u2019s sick,\u201d Woll said. \u201cPretty cool, from my perspective, to watch him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woll added that Akhtyamov gives off similar energy to countrymen and NHL stars Andrei Vasilevskiy, Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin and Sergei Bobrovsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Russian swagger,\u201d he said. \u201cSame kind of vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTough for both teams,\u201d Berube told reporters Saturday morning. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought that, but circumstances, injuries \u2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,448,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-598815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-central-vancouver-island","12":"tag-nanaimo","13":"tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","14":"tag-nanaimo-news","15":"tag-nanaimo-news-now","16":"tag-nanaimonewsnow","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-oceanside","20":"tag-parksville","21":"tag-qualicum","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}