The Toronto Maple Leafs have dropped their third straight game, falling 4-1 to the New York Islanders at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night and sliding to the bottom of the Atlantic Division. It is the club’s fourth defeat in five games, and head coach Jim Hiller faced his tensest post-game press conference of the young season.
Anthony Duclair opened the scoring at 8:18 of the first period, and Bo Horvat doubled the lead late in the second, burying a rebound in the slot. Colton Sissons tipped a Troy Stecher point shot home early in the third to pull Toronto within one, but Simon Holmstrom restored the two-goal cushion at 14:08 before sealing it into an empty net. Ilya Sorokin made 28 saves for the win; Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 16 of 19 for Toronto.
The result was all the more galling for Toronto because New York finished most of the night with ten forwards. Calum Ritchie left after a single shift with a lower-body injury, and Matias Maccelli fell awkwardly on his left knee at 16:36 of the first and did not return. Toronto were themselves missing John Tavares, week to week with a lower-body injury suffered in Thursday’s overtime loss to Buffalo. It has been a bruising weekend around the league — Nathan MacKinnon was left bloodied in a fight with Roope Hintz as Colorado edged Dallas 3-2.
Perimeter play and familiar questions
Hiller’s complaint was simple: too much perimeter hockey and not enough traffic in front of Sorokin. Kirill Marchenko, fresh off Thursday’s hat trick, had two good chances turned aside, while first-overall pick Gavin McKenna fired a partial breakaway high and wide late in the second. The jeers from the home crowd suggested patience is already thinning.
What comes next for the Leafs
Toronto, now 3-4-2, host San Jose on Monday night; the Islanders, 4-3-1, travel to Anaheim on Tuesday. The early pressure on the new-look operation is real — and not only in Toronto, with Montreal’s front office also active, trading defenceman Jayden Struble to Nashville for a 2027 second-round pick. The full detail of Saturday’s defeat is in the league’s official game recap.
