The Toronto Maple Leafs have posted a 3–3–1 record to start the 2025–26 season. Clearly, the team that won the Atlantic Division last year is not starting this year off on the right foot. There was a lot of discussion in the offseason about how the absence of Mitch Marner would impact the team. So far, the team is tracking to be worse off.
On the other hand, how the team has played so far this year is nothing new in the Matthews era. Even with Marner in prior seasons, we have had bad starts to the year. We have seen the team play with a lack of grit and aggression. We have seen coaches call out the only star, William Nylander, to improve his play, and not the other stars.
The teams before the Matthews era had the stigma of “blue and white disease.” But has this really changed? What needs to happen for the Leafs to move forward? Let’s take a look!
Blue and white disease: A brief history
There is a term in Toronto, particularly around the Toronto Maple Leafs, colloquially called “blue and white disease”. Essentially, it means that the players prioritize the fame and the status that come with being a Leaf, as opposed to prioritizing on-ice success.
We have seen this term thrown around in 2008 with the “Muskoka Five”. There were five players on the Leafs at the time, Mats Sundin, Darcy Tucker, Pavel Kubina, Bryan McCabe, and Tomas Kaberle, who refused to waive their no-trade clauses at the trade deadline.
At the time, it was painfully obvious that the Leafs needed to rebuild. However, they couldn’t offload their expensive (and highest value) players to start. Many were perplexed why they wouldn’t waive their no-trade clause to play on a Stanley Cup-contending team. After all, isn’t the goal to win the Stanley Cup?
The Muskoka region is a popular cottage region, a few hours outside of Toronto, where NHL players spend their summers. Many thought that these players, many of whom were the core leadership of the team, were too comfortable. That they were fine with the salary and celebrity status of playing in Toronto, and fine with not making the playoffs to spend time at the cottage. Hence, the insult, the “Muskoka Five”.
Personally, I don’t blame these players for using their negotiated contractual rights. The management at the time, John Ferguson Jr., and Cliff Fletcher, bear the responsibility for handing out those contracts. But the cultural aspects and management blunders at the time are very reminiscent of the current Matthews era.
The Leafs in the early modern era
Of course, the NHL implemented the salary cap in the 2005–26 season. So technically, the “Muskoa Five” would be in the modern era. However, for me personally, I consider the “modern era” for the Leafs when Brian Burke took over from Cliff Fletcher in 2008.
Unlike the previous general managers, Burke had recent success and pedigree. In his first season as general manager with the Anaheim Ducks, the Ducks made it to the Western Conference finals. The following year, in 2006–07, the Ducks won the Stanley Cup.
Burke was brought in to change the on-ice culture and cure the blue and white disease. He valued big players who had “truculence,” and his trades and drafting reflected this philosophy. Unfortunately, these teams were no more successful than his predecessors and came with other baggage. Notably, the trade for Phil Kessel (that could have been the beginning of a rebuild in Toronto) and the controversial extension of head coach and long-time friend at the time, Ron Wilson.
While it was obvious that these Burke teams were woefully underskilled (except for Phil Kessel and rookie Morgan Rielly), the team had a sense of identity. These teams played a blue-collar game and were willing to stick up for teammates. It was what made the 3–1 playoff series come back against the Boston Bruins in 2013 so memorable. We won’t talk about the third-period collapse.
Suffice to say, before Brendan Shanahan, there were some pretty dark times in Leafs land. The post-Mats Sundin teams under Brian Burke and Dave Nonis were some of the worst-performing Leafs teams. At least in the modern era by far.
The Matthews era-present
Shanahan was brought into the organization to right the ship, so to speak, and to his credit, he did that. There was a renewed sense of pride in being a Leaf. Though drafting stars like William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Auston Matthews certainly helps.
Unfortunately, other than making the playoffs for nine consecutive years, the teams in the current era have disappointed all the same. In the twilight of the Sundin era, you could make the argument that the core was aging, and the team was a shell of its early 2000s playoff runs. While the Burke teams lacked the top-end skill required for deep playoff runs, on ice, they had more of a culture of a winning team (though obviously not to the level required).
What makes the Matthews era unequivocally frustrating is that we have seen some of, if not the most skilled teams in Leafs’ history. Even without Marner, the skill of the current team is much higher than in eras past. There is clearly enough skill to win a Stanley Cup. It’s just that they don’t play with the on-ice culture needed to win. The playoff failures speak to this loud and clear.
Over the years, the Leafs have brought in players and personnel to the organization in an effort to change the on-ice culture. From players like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, to Ryan O’Reilly, to more recently Scott Laughton and Brendon Carlo. However, nothing has changed.
It seems that when new players come to the organization, they play with the same grit, determination, and winning attitude they had on their previous teams for a few weeks or a few months. Eventually, however, they become indoctrinated in the team philosophy and stop playing the game the way that they were traded for.
Same play, different season
So far, the first seven games of the 2025–26 season are no different from prior seasons. The 4–3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken last Saturday night is a prototypical example.
Even Anthony Stolarz, who was the backup on the Florida Panthers to Sergei Bobrovsky in their 2023–24 Stanley Cup win, called the team out after the poor effort. He highlighted the same issues that we have seen for years, such as being outworked, allowing players to run the goalie without consequence, and only showing up in the last few minutes of the game.
After the poor effort against the Kraken, surely the Leafs would wake up and have a better game on Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils. How do the Leafs respond? They follow this loss up with another deflating 5–2 loss.
The Leafs are on their third head coach, their third general manager, and have undergone numerous wholesale changes to the coaching staff and bottom-six in the Matthews era. What has persisted over this time has been the overpriced stars that have not adapted their game after the perpetual playoff failures.
The blue and white disease, like any good disease, has mutated and persisted past several eras of Leafs teams, and notably past several management teams and coaching staffs in the current era. It really appears that the Leafs’ stars took their bag of money and are content with bowing out after the first round each year. At what point do we start holding the team leadership accountable?
Auston Matthews needs to be a captain
It seems to be a taboo or an unwillingness in the Toronto media to call out captain Auston Matthews. In the last decade, the only star to be called out directly has been Nylander. Instead, we are more inclined to blame the third line or the third defence pairing. The stars need to fundamentally change how they play the game if they want to be successful.
Matthews needs to start playing the game with the mindset of how Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, and other stars play. Very rarely do we see these players take a game off. They hate to lose more than they like winning. We don’t see this mindset from Matthews at all.
Culture changes start at the top, and on the ice, it starts with your captain. If Matthews starts throwing hits, plays with agitation, plays with heart, and plays the game every night with an unshakeable, indomitable will, what will happen?
There will naturally be a ripple effect throughout the entire lineup. If not, then Brad Treliving will make trades and bring in players to support the team culture. This is the opposite of what the Leafs have done over the last decade. Instead of bringing players to change the culture, players are brought in to nurture the existing culture.
Guaranteed players like Carlo didn’t magically forget how to play Boston Bruins-style hockey (especially against the Leafs). If the on-ice leadership doesn’t play with grit and determination or play for each other, what is the incentive for others to follow?
We can see a stark parallel between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The stars, such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr and George Springer, have shown up in the big moments, and the Jays are now in the World Series.
Yes, they got stellar performances out of the bottom of their rotation and from key pitchers. However, it’s the team cohesiveness that sticks out. The players would literally give anything and everything for each other, and this is something that doesn’t seem to be the case for the Leafs.
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