TORONTO \u2014 When is the honeymoon over?<\/p>\n
When do the good vibes bubbling around the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>\u2019 early season need to translate to meaningful growth?<\/p>\n Hat tricks and highlights and rookie intrigue and some impressive individual showings will only get a team so far.<\/p>\n Now, we see how the house that John Chayka built holds up to its first real stretch of severe weather: injuries to two backbone players, three consecutive losses, and a tumble down the standings despite playing twice as many games at home as on the road.<\/p>\n Sometime after Troy Stecher \u2014 an admirable third-pair defenceman playing top-pair minutes Saturday \u2014 takes his stick and smashes it in half over Sergei Bobrovsky\u2019s crossbar in frustration, and sometime before a few Leafs faithful let the boo birds fly and head coach Jim Hiller delivers his tensest post-game press conference since the last one, it dawns on you:\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe the Maple Leafs (3-4-2) aren\u2019t significantly better than they were under the last coach.<\/p>\n The New York Islanders, who beat the home team 4-1 wire-to-wire Saturday, aren\u2019t considered an NHL powerhouse by any means. The Leafs are down Chris Tanev and John Tavares, sure. But they\u2019re rested and should\u2019ve been inspired to respond from Thursday\u2019s blown two-goal lead to Buffalo.<\/p>\n And the patient, pack-the-house Islanders started the game down Mathew Barzal and lost two more top-six forwards to injury before the game was 17 minutes old.<\/p>\n Still, Toronto could not find a path \u2014 or opted not to force one \u2014 through Pete DeBoer\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just disappointing. They could have their full lineup in there, and our lack of fortitude to get to the inside makes it disappointing in any case,\u201d Hiller lamented. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to score from the perimeter against this team.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think our D had many looks tonight, and there was nothing inside.\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing, especially, from Toronto\u2019s stacked top line of Auston Matthews<\/a>, William Nylander<\/a>, and Jack Roslovic, which generated just 16.5 per cent of expected goals. Nylander had one shot and finished a dash-3. Matthews had one shot, was minus-1, and went 3-for-11 in the dot.<\/p>\n \u201cThey played hard,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cThey did a good job of keeping us on the outside, and I think we passed up on a lot of shots today too, and just kind of made it a little bit easier on them.\u201d<\/p>\n The formula for Hiller\u2019s Leafs to win, so far, has been for the eight-figure salaried guys to dazzle and for a power play that entered this contest fourth overall to deliver.<\/p>\n The Leafs couldn\u2019t sustain momentum 5-on-5, so going 0-for-3 on the man-advantage spelled disaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe power plays that we had almost just gave them more momentum with the way that they were able to clear pucks, break up plays, deny entries and stuff like that,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n Disappointing, too, was the lack of emotion or initiative by the Leafs to change the tenor of 60 minutes played to the lullaby of Islanders Hockey.<\/p>\n Outside of Stecher\u2019s smashed stick and jubilant celebration when his point shot got tipped in smartly by Colton Sissons, the Leafs allowed the Islanders to suck the life out of Scotiabank Arena like a swarm of energy vampires. Hockey\u2019s\u00a0Colin Robinsons<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tanev is skating again, which is positive, but another trade feels like a Hail Mary.<\/p>\n As Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday, Chayka isn\u2019t keen on spending for a B-level defenceman. He\u2019d be open to offering prime assets for a difference-maker, but it\u2019s probably too early to circle back on Zach Werenski just yet. Oh, and the GM is willing to trade an older defenceman for a younger one, but who isn\u2019t?<\/p>\n What the Leafs can do in the meantime is summon urgency as they enter Week 4 of 2026-27 in the same spot they finished 2025-26: last place in the Atlantic Division.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, they\u2019ve now fallen below the Red Wings, generally viewed as this month\u2019s tire fire.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the spirit\u2019s fine,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cWe want to win some games. Let\u2019s be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n No better time to start than Monday-Tuesday\u2019s back-to-back versus San Jose and at Columbus, a couple of fellow non-playoff teams also striving for identity and consistency.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t take too much time here to sort things out. Not in this league. Not in our division. We fully are aware of that. Down some guys right now. We gotta all pick it up collectively, and we got full belief that we can do that,\u201d Sissons said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need urgency,\u201d Matthews echoed. \u201cThe games are just going to keep coming, and we\u2019ve got to just be better in all areas \u2014 starting with myself, starting with the leaders and veterans on this team. I think we\u2019ve all got another level to show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022 Gavin McKenna<\/a>\u2019s ice time nearly tripled from Thursday\u2019s night. The rookie skated 17:56 and put four pucks on net. Among Leafs forwards, only Matthews and Nylander saw more ice.<\/p>\n