The Maple Leafs left Vancouver with two points, but not much clarity.
Toronto wrapped up its four-game western swing with a 4-2 win over the Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena, finishing the trip 2-2 and moving to 8-6-2 on the season. The result was enough to get them home with a victory, but not enough to change the bigger conversation around this team: the Leafs still don’t look settled.
Jim Hiller said as much after the game.
“I don’t think so,” Hiller said when asked if the team was honing a consistent identity. “I think we’ve been inconsistent, too inconsistent.
If there’s one thing that I would point to is we’ve had some great moments in games, and we’ve had some times where we just haven’t had a good pushback. So that has to be addressed.”
That theme has followed Toronto throughout the trip. The Leafs had a strong offensive night in Edmonton on Oct. 24, winning 7-2, but Natural Stat Trick had them at a 46.46 Corsi for percentage and a 50.48 expected goals percentage while they allowed 3.13 expected goals against.
Two nights later in Calgary, the numbers fell apart in a 5-2 loss: a 40.35 CF% and 38.58 xGF%, with the Flames generating 4.57 expected goals against. Then came Seattle on Oct. 28, where Toronto owned more shot attempts at 53.19 CF% but still gave up a 30.77 high-danger chance percentage in a 5-4 loss.
Against Vancouver, the Leafs again found enough offense to separate in the second period. Auston Matthews and Zack MacEwen scored in the middle frame, helping Toronto pull away, but Hiller still saw an uneven night overall.
He called the first and third periods “just okay,” while pointing to the middle frame as the best stretch of the game.
“We forechecked, and we made contact on their D, and then we were quick to support it,” he said. “I thought we did that as well as we’ve done it all year in the second.”
The line changes helped spark that stretch. Hiller moved Colton Sissons between Dakota Joshua and rookie Gavin McKenna, and he liked what he saw from the group.
“I actually thought that Sissons-Joshua-McKenna were really effective,” he said. “It’s probably the most Gavin’s had the puck in the ozone in a game. I would think with the puck on a stick, it was dangerous.”
Joshua and Chris Tanev both returned to the lineup and were “really solid,” though Hiller added there was “a little rust on both of them.” Joshua, making his season debut after a core injury from the offseason, finished with five shots and seven hits, including four hits in the first period.
Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves to pick up the win and improve to 5-1. Afterward, he kept the focus on the workload in front of him.
“You need everybody,” he said. “There’s a lot of them that come at you fast.”
Even with the win, the larger concern remains the same: Toronto has not consistently controlled the defensive side of the game, and the underlying numbers have reflected that. Hiller said the return home should help.
“It’ll be good to get home, catch our breath,” he said. “We were able to practice yesterday for the first time, and I don’t know how long.
So we’re gonna have some good practice time in November. I think it’s really important for our team right now.”
The Leafs head home Sunday and will open a six-game homestand on Tuesday against the Utah Mammoth.
In Other News...
Leafs Win Still Came With The Problem Fans Keep Seeing
The win in Vancouver gave the Maple Leafs a clean result to take home, but Jim Hiller still spent much of his postgame talking about the parts of the game that need to settle in. After the 4-2 finish, the coach pointed to the teams uneven play through 16 games, while also noting encouraging signs from Anthony Stolarz in goal and the way Torontos forecheck took over in the second period. With a busy road trip behind them, the Leafs are now looking at practice time as a chance to tighten up some of the details that have kept the group from looking fully connected.
Hiller also touched on the ongoing adjustment for Gavin McKenna, whose transition to the NHL level remains a work in progress, even as the coaching staff keeps searching for the right combinations. The returns of Dakota Joshua and Chris Tanev were part of that broader picture, too, as Toronto continues to sort out how its lineup pieces fit together after time away. For a team that can still bank points while leaving questions on the table, the next stretch may say as much about its growth as the final score did. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Are Waiting On A Kirill Marchenko Recovery Twist
Kirill Marchenkos status has become one of the quieter concerns hanging over the Maple Leafs, with the forward currently sidelined by a lower-body injury and the team still without a clear timeline for his return. For a club trying to keep its forward group intact, the uncertainty matters just as much as the injury itself, especially when a players availability can shape how the lineup is managed night to night.
Marchenko has at least offered a small glimpse of progress away from the rink, appearing on social media in a knee brace while working through stickhandling exercises at home. It is the kind of update that suggests he is staying engaged, but it still leaves Toronto waiting for the next real sign that his recovery is moving toward a return. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Face A Goaltending Decision Fans Wont All Agree On
The Maple Leafs are weighing a familiar kind of early-season question in goal: stick with the hot hand or go back to the veteran who was expected to carry more of the load. Anthony Stolarz has given them a strong start, and the club is also trying to be smart about how it manages workloads with a busy schedule coming up, which makes the decision feel bigger than one game.
Sergei Bobrovskys uneven start has only sharpened the debate, because Toronto knows it cannot afford to let the position become a nightly guessing game. For now, the Leafs are still sorting out whether the safest path is to keep riding Stolarz or give Bobrovsky another chance to settle in, and it is the kind of call that can shape both the short-term rotation and the mood around the crease. [Read more 🡒]