The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t just lose a player on Wednesday night. They lost the one defenceman who had been holding a lot of things together.
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Oliver Ekman-Larsson went down early against the Detroit Red Wings, and from that moment on, the game tilted into survival mode. You could see it almost immediately in how the minutes stacked up and how the bench shortened. When a team already running on fumes loses its most dependable blueliner, there’s no smooth way to absorb it. You just start borrowing from tomorrow.
Ekman-Larsson Has Been the Maple Leafs Best Blueliner
Ekman-Larsson has been Toronto’s best defenceman for a while now, and not in a flashy, headline-grabbing way. He’s been the one who settles shifts, moves the puck cleanly, and makes the right play more often than not. Eight goals, 31 points, and steady use in all situations are not accidental production. That’s a player the coaching staff trusts, and trust is the real currency on a blue line.
Once he was gone, the redistribution of minutes told the story. Jake McCabe played over 28 minutes. Troy Stecher logged more than 25. Brandon Carlo was over 20. Simon Benoit was the only defenceman whose workload didn’t spike dramatically, which in itself says something about how roles are being defined right now.
Morgan Rielly Didn’t Lead the Maple Leafs in Ice Time
Two things stood out. First, Morgan Rielly wasn’t leading the team in ice time in a close, important game — something that would have been automatic in previous seasons. Second, Stecher, claimed off waivers and making league-minimum money, played more than Rielly. That isn’t a knock on anyone. Stecher has stepped up and done exactly what’s been asked of him. It’s a snapshot of where this blue line is right now.
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The plight of the Maple Leafs’ defensive core isn’t about one bad night or one tough stretch. It’s about accumulation. The schedule has been brutal. The games have been tight. The margins are thin. When you remove the one defenceman who was absorbing pressure and easing transitions, everyone else has to play just a little harder, a little longer, a little more carefully. That’s where mistakes start to creep in — not because players don’t care, but because legs and brains stop syncing up.
The Maple Leafs’ Defence Isn’t Young Anymore
There’s also the age and wear factor. Ekman-Larsson is 34. McCabe is 32 and plays a physical game that asks a lot of his body. Rielly has logged heavy minutes for years. These aren’t interchangeable parts. They’re veterans being leaned on at a time when the team can least afford another crack in the foundation.
The bigger concern isn’t just how Toronto survives a game or two without Ekman-Larsson. It’s what this does over a two- or three-week stretch if he’s out longer. The Maple Leafs are already flirting with the edge of the playoff picture. Every overtime loss, every tired third period, every point left on the table tightens the math.
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Coaching decisions get harder, too. Do you keep riding your top four, risking burning them out? Do you spread minutes more evenly and accept the growing pains that come with it? Do you ask Rielly to be something he hasn’t been asked to be lately, or do you stick with what’s been working and hope the dam doesn’t break?
There are no easy answers here. Just trade-offs.
Wednesday Night Showed How Small the Maple Leafs Margin Has Become
What Wednesday night showed, more than anything, is how narrow the Maple Leafs’ margin has become. They played a good team to a standstill. They got strong goaltending. They earned a point. And still, you walked away feeling the cost.
Now the question isn’t whether Toronto can play with teams like Detroit. They can. The question is whether they can keep doing it now that the one defenceman who stabilized everything is gone.
That’s the real “now what.”
