EDMONTON — As the wind whipped along 104 Avenue, the air outside Rogers Place chilled to minus -10 C on a brisk autumn evening.
Yet the Toronto Maple Leafs came into town for their annual meeting with the Edmonton Oilers hot — and left scorching.
An entertaining and all-hands-on-deck 7-2 thumping, the Oilers’ most decisive loss of the season. Four regulation wins in a row, a feat the Maple Leafs never once achieved in the drudgery that was 2025-26. And an improved and ridiculous 12-2-1 record as the Oilers’ visitors since captain Auston Matthews entered the league in 2016-17.
When the dust settled on this steeply hyped and high-event, all-Canadian clash, coach Jim Hiller agreed: This was the best single-game performance by his group yet.
Considering that it came with his own mentor tossing out Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the NHL’s two most prolific scorers, and that the Leafs’ defence has three bodies on injured reserve, and that Hiller decided to start backup Anthony Stolarz, and that second-line centre John Tavares (also IR) is too hurt to fly … well, this was one heckuva team effort. On both sides of the puck.
“I mean, it’s deadly,” said Oiler-turned-Leaf Jack Roslovic, who opened the scoring. “Look at the best teams in the world. You know, notoriously Stanley Cup winners, they all have four lines that are deep and not only contribute to a team game, but they contribute offensively and they’re reliable defensively.”
Oilers waiver castoff Troy Stecher scored in consecutive games, fooling Tristan Jarry with a bar-down beauty, and led all Leafs in ice time (24:21).
Matthews took a nasty cross-check to the ribs in his first shift against Draisaitl but contained hockey’s best line 5-on-5.
Stolarz was nothing short of superb, stopping 30 pucks and earning first-star honours.
And William Nylander (two goals) reached the 300-goal milestone.
But it wasn’t just the household names that shone. All four Toronto forward lines found the net at even-strength. Thirteen Leafs finished with a point. Seventeen of 18 skaters finished on the plus side of the ledger.
Success breeds smiles.
“You can tell the energy in here is infectious. The guys are really gelling well. Everybody loves coming to the rink and getting together,” said grinder Zack MacEwen, one of four men in two games to register their first goal as a Leaf.
“When everybody’s doing their job and we're playing like we are, it’s just fun to come to the rink, fun to compete and play, and obviously get wins.”
Be it the swarms of Blue and White sweaters cramming Rogers Place early for warmups, the raucous rounds of “Go Leafs Go” chants inside enemy territory, or the relaxed atmosphere inside the dressing room, spirits are lofty in Leafland these days.
“The energy in the locker room day in and day out has been great,” Matthews said. “The guys, the environment that we’re in, it's just so much fun. It's competitive, you know. A lot of joking around, a lot of chirping one another.
“It's just been a lot of fun, and I think that emotion, that energy carries over in the games. And it doesn't matter who scores — everybody's excited, everybody's happy. It's just everything's about the team, and the team's been first all this time, and that's what's most important. That's what I feel like is driving us right now.”
The Maple Leafs have been guilty of being a one- or two-line team in the past. This is what it looks like when everyone feels invested, when they all embrace their role.
Better yet, this is what it feels like.
It’s Matthews raving about the fourth line. It’s the third-pair D-man rising to top-pair minutes. It’s Roslovic shooing reporters away after a two-point revenge game and telling them to go talk to Stolarz because he was the real star.
“It’s not just Matthews. It's not just Nylander. It's not just Tavares. It's going through the lineup, and that gives you a chance to win every night,” Hiller said.
“As much as I'm happy for those guys, I'm happy for our team that they can feel that there's other guys there to support. And it’s a pretty good feeling right now.”
The streaking Maple Leafs take that feeling a short flight south to Calgary. They go for five straight Monday in their final visit to the Saddledome.
Fox’s Fast Five
• Here is McDavid on former Erie Otters teammate and fellow GTA product Darren Raddysh, far and away Toronto’s ice-time leader at 23:42 per night:
“Raddy’s an unbelievable guy. I played with him in minor hockey, junior. People don’t expect much from him — at least when we were younger — and he’s always been such an amazing player. So smart. He was always as good player, and it’s taken him a while to work up to where he is. I’m so happy for him that he’s got a great deal playing for his hometown team. He’s finally getting that recognition he deserves. Honestly, since we were kids, it’s been this way. He's kinda just been the forgotten guy, always quietly going about his business and doing his job. Really happy for him.”
• How good is Toronto’s penalty kill?
Well, until Draisaitl solved it in garbage time, the Leafs had been on a run of 30 consecutive kills. Through 12 games, the Leafs wielded the best PK start in league history (tracked since 1977-78). And through 13, they’ve only allowed once more goal on the kill than they’ve scored short-handed.
“It’s just a lot of desperation,” Hiller said. “I see shot blocks, guys diving for pucks, so there's a lot going on right there right now. And against this (Oilers) power play, which I know well, they challenge you more than anybody. So, I just love the desperation. It's a team game, and they're taking a lot of pride in that.”
• Veteran Dakota Mermis, the safe pick, made his Leafs debut, while Toronto’s top defence prospect, 20-year-old Ben Danford, stayed back to scrap away on the farm.
“The one mistake you can make is trying to rush people. We’ve got good options,” Hiller said of Danford. “He was considered.”
Chris Tanev (upper body) is traveling with the club on this four-game roadie. Tavares (lower body) is not.
• McDavid begins his season with an 11-game points streak, while linemate Draisaitl begins his with 12 goals in 11 games. Silly numbers.
“I see a little bit different style of play,” Hiller said. “The other thing I would say is, they’re probably a little fresher than they’ve been in past regular seasons based on the long (2024 and 2025) playoff runs. They’ve certainly got their legs, and they’ve been tough to stop.”
McDavid’s 23 assists in October edges Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux (22) for most ever in this month. The Oilers have three more games to play before Nov. 1.
• Easton Cowan is up to 12 points before Halloween. The sophomore needed until January last season to reach that total. Impressive how swiftly he looks at home on the top line.
“It's amazing. You don’t see all the little things when you play against him, especially only a couple times a year, but he's really unbelievable,” linemate Roslovic said.
“Hard on pucks, good vision, good defensively. He’s a star.”
