Maple Leafs vs Islanders: Sorokin, Perimeter Shots Sink Toronto 4-1

Maple Leafs vs Islanders: the result

The Maple Leafs vs Islanders rematch went New York's way on Oct. 17, a 4-1 Islanders win at Scotiabank Arena that dropped Toronto to 3-4-2 and extended its losing streak to three games. It is four losses in the last five for Jim Hiller's team, and this one came against an Islanders club that lost two forwards in the first period and finished the night with 10.

Toronto outshot New York 29-20 and had a 13-3 edge in shots in the third period, per the official box score. None of that mattered much. Ilya Sorokin stopped 28 of 29, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 16 of 19, and the Islanders turned a handful of good looks into goals while the Leafs kept shooting from places Sorokin could see.

The Leafs had won the first meeting between the teams 2-1 on Sept. 30, Hiller's first win behind the Toronto bench. Nineteen days later, the same opponent exposed the same problem that has followed this team through October: when the game tightens, Toronto stays outside.

How the goals went in

The scoring was spread across all three periods, and each Islanders goal came at a moment when the Leafs had a chance to take control. Here is the sequence, per the NHL and Associated Press game reports:

Duclair's opener is the one Hiller's staff will spend the most time on. Pageau found him in the slot with nobody tied up, the kind of interior coverage breakdown that has defined Toronto's goals against this month. Horvat's goal late in the second gave New York a two-goal cushion going into the intermission, and it meant Toronto's third-period push had to produce twice.

It produced once. Sissons got his tip after a pair of disjointed power plays, and for about half a period the building believed. Then Holmstrom scored at 14:08 and added the empty-netter, and Sorokin's win moved him past Glenn "Chico" Resch into sole possession of second on the Islanders' all-time wins list.

Hiller's "lack of fortitude" diagnosis

Hiller did not hide behind the shot count. Asked about losing to a team down to 10 forwards, he said the Islanders "could have their full lineup in there, and our lack of fortitude to get to the inside makes it disappointing in any case," per postgame coverage in The Hockey News and Maple Leafs Hot Stove. He added: "You're not going to score on the perimeter against this team."

He also pointed at the structure: at times the Leafs "jammed it in with our forwards without turning up and using our D." That is a coach describing a team that is shooting from distance when the lane is open and forcing the puck into traffic when it isn't, without the defence getting involved to change the angle.

This is the right read, and it is the same leak LeafsLurker flagged after the Utah loss in our breakdown of Toronto's second-period problem. The issue is not effort in the abstract. It is that this roster, without John Tavares and Chris Tanev, has very few players who go to the hard areas by habit. Shots from the outside against a goalie like Sorokin are not pressure, they are possession that ends with a save.

The power play went quiet again

Toronto went 0-for-3 on the power play, and the last of those man-advantages produced one shot, per Leafs Nation's takeaways. With Tavares out week-to-week, Gavin McKenna has moved onto the top unit, and the early signs were good: the group moved the puck more quickly with McKenna on the half-wall, and Kirill Marchenko's best one-timer of the night clipped the knob of Sorokin's stick instead of going in.

Close is not a goal, though. A power play with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Marchenko and McKenna on it should be the reason Toronto wins tight games while the roster is banged up. Instead it has become another place where the Leafs look dangerous on the replay and empty on the scoresheet.

Marchenko led Toronto with five shots. McKenna had four in about 18 minutes, two nights after Hiller benched him for most of the third period against Buffalo, a call Hiller himself admitted was a mistake and one LeafsLurker argued against in our take on the McKenna benching. The 2026 first overall pick responded the right way. He was arguably Toronto's best forward.

Bobrovsky didn't lose this one

Sixteen saves on 19 shots is not a pretty line, but it was not Bobrovsky's fault either. The Duclair goal came from the slot with no stick on the shooter, and Toronto generated one goal on 29 shots at the other end. A goalie who faces 20 shots in 60 minutes and sees three of the best ones go in is a goalie whose team gave up quality, not volume.

That distinction matters because the crease is going to be a talking point the moment the Leafs lose a fourth straight. Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz have both had nights this month that cost Toronto points, but the team in front of them is the bigger story. Across the three straight losses, starting in Utah, the Leafs have given up 14 goals. The goaltending has been part of that. The coverage has been most of it.

Where 3-4-2 leaves Toronto

Nine games in, the Leafs have eight points and sit in the bottom half of the Atlantic, with Boston and Ottawa at the top of the division as of Oct. 16. It is far too early for the standings to mean much on their own, and the full standings will move a dozen times before November. What is not too early to notice is how the losses are happening:

• A 5-4 loss to Utah built on rush chances against
• A 5-4 overtime loss to Buffalo after leading 4-2 in the third period
• A 4-1 loss to a shorthanded Islanders team that Toronto outshot

Three different scripts, one common thread: Toronto is not winning the middle of the ice at either end. That is the area where Tavares and Tanev help most, and both are week-to-week. Hiller has to find a way to win those battles with the 12 healthy forwards he has, not the 14 he wants.

What's next for the Leafs

The schedule does not give Toronto long to dwell on it. The Leafs visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 20, the first meeting with Matthew Knies since the Marchenko-Knies trade, then host the New York Rangers on Oct. 22. Dakota Joshua, on a long-term injured reserve conditioning loan with the Marlies, could be eligible to return for the Rangers game.

Two things to watch in Columbus. First, whether Hiller keeps McKenna on the top power-play unit after he was the best thing about it on Saturday. He should. Second, whether the Leafs' defencemen start activating into the offensive zone the way their coach said they didn't against New York. If the answer to the second is no, the result will probably look like this one.

Losing streaks in October rarely decide seasons. But a team that keeps losing the same way is telling its coach something, and Hiller, to his credit, heard it out loud. The fix is not a new system. It is getting to the net and staying there.