Leafs lose to Panthers, fall into bottom five in standings

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Leafs Nation, you have your wish.

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If Toronto maintains that spot, or drops further, it will retain its 2026 first-round pick (depending on how the draft lottery plays out as well). Sent to the Boston Bruins trade involving Brandon Carlo last March, the pick is top-five protected.

A 6-2 Leafs loss against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night, coupled with a Seattle Kraken win against the Calgary Flames, put the Leafs in 28th overall in the 32-team NHL. Seattle has 79 points with three games to play; Toronto has 78 points and two games left.

Defenceman William Villeneuve played 18 minutes 26 seconds in his National Hockey League debut on the Leafs blue line and didn’t look out of place.

Villeneuve’s partner initially was Simon Benoit before he was switched later in the first period to play on Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s right.

William Nylander scored two goals in a span of two minutes 21 seconds in the second period to get the Leafs to within a goal after Florida took a 3-0 lead.

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At 10:55, Nylander went glove side on goalie Daniil Tarasov from the hash marks during a Toronto power play. Nylander scored a similar goal at 13:16, though this one came at even-strength.

It marked Nylander’s fourth two-goal game of 2025-26 and first since Dec. 23 against Pittsburgh. All have come at home.

Panthers missing a dozen

Mackie Samoskevich, A.J. Greer and Tomas Nosek (the latter two into an empty net) scored in the third period for the Panthers, who were missing 12 players because of injury.

The Panthers scored on their first shot of the game, marking the eighth time this season the Leafs have given up a goal on the first shot against. Before NHL games on Saturday, nine other teams had given up a goal on the first shot against in a game. Vegas led the unenviable category, giving allowing a first-shot goal 11 times.

At 23 seconds of the first, Eetu Luostarinen banked the puck off Leafs goalie Joseph Woll and into the net.

Florida increased its lead to 2-0 at 5:32 when Cole Reinhardt burst past defenceman Jake McCabe and managed to get the puck past Woll. The Leafs challenged for goalie interference but were denied via review and the goal stood.

At 1:32 of the second, Nosek went high on Woll’s glove side for his first of the season to give the Panthers a 3-0 advantage.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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