Photo via Toronto Sun

Why the Maple Leafs have to tame the Wild to avoid a home record wreck

Read the original at Toronto Sun ↗
Cite

Hornby, L. (2026, November 12). Why the Maple Leafs have to tame the Wild to avoid a home record wreck. Toronto Sun. https://torontosun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs/leafs-have-to-tame-wild-avoid-home-record-wreck

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Toronto Sun · collected 2026-11-12 · by Lance Hornby

Quick Summary

The Toronto Maple Leafs face a challenging home game against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, aiming to avoid a fifth consecutive loss and prevent their worst home record in recent history. The Wild boasts an impressive defensive record with a 2.20 goals-against average, making it difficult for the Leafs to score. Center Teddy Blueger emphasized that despite facing tough competition, his team needs to piece together its strengths to overcome this adversity. With upcoming games against the Edmonton Oilers as well, the pressure is high for Toronto to improve their performance.
Written by AI on 2026-11-12, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

The Toronto Maple Leafs face a challenging home game against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena, aiming to avoid their fifth straight defeat. The Wild, currently leading the Central Division, are known for having one of the best defensive teams in the NHL with an impressive 2.20 goals-against average and only allowing 24 even-strength goals. In contrast, the Leafs have allowed 51 such goals this season. Despite recent close losses to Utah and Montreal, Toronto has been outscored 10-3 by New Jersey and Colorado since Sunday. The upcoming series with the Wild, followed by a game against the Edmonton Oilers led by Connor McDavid, poses significant challenges for the Leafs, who have never faced losing an entire six-game home stand before this season.

Written for “Maple Leafs Versus Wild Game” on 2026-11-13, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 6% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Toronto Sun
Hedges 2 of 26 claims Outlet record 96/100
“The articles describe different games of Toronto Maple Leafs' six-game homestand, with ARTICLE A covering a loss to New Jersey Devils and ARTICLE B discussing an upcoming game against the Minnesota Wild.”
Toronto Star
Hedges 1 of 44 claims Outlet record 64/100
“The articles describe different games against distinct teams, with Article A covering a loss to the Colorado Avalanche on November 11th and Article B discussing an upcoming game against the Minnesota Wild on November 13th.”
Toronto Star
Hedges 0 of 20 claims Outlet record 64/100
“Article A describes a specific game between the Minnesota Wild and Montreal Canadiens, while Article B discusses the upcoming challenge for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Minnesota Wild.”
Global News
Hedges 2 of 46 claims Outlet record 63/100
“The articles describe different games and scenarios for the Maple Leafs, with Article A covering a game against Colorado on November 11th and Article B discussing preparations for a game against Minnesota on November 12th.”

Story

Maple Leafs Versus Wild Game
Sports · 1 article(s) covering the same event.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
16
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
6%
1 of 16 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
96/100
Toronto Sun's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Sports
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-12 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Toronto Sun · 294 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Lance Hornby
6 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
Hiller said Tanev would be back Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers, but given how vocal the proud veteran was about going along with the maintenance plan, the coach was not keen on discussing details.
But to prevent a fifth straight defeat Thursday at Scotiabank Arena will require a combination of safe cracking and skullduggery, by a Toronto team that hasn’t been thinking fast on its feet at all.
Burke spent much of his speech taking good-natured shots at those who tried to discourage his playing career, including Lou Lamoriello at Providence College, who’d would later be an NHL executive peer.
Informed that Matthew’s opinion was Keith could’ve had even more than 566 career goals if not spending 2,219 minutes in the penalty box, Keith quipped “they should listen to their own advice.”
A few moments before the New Jersey Devils’ dressing room opened following Hellebuyck’s Sunday night 4-0 shutout of the Leafs, general manager Sunny Mehta issued a statement that the Jets’ goaltender would not play in Manitoba on Tuesday.
Sheldon Keefe has a shiny new toy, one that a lot of playground rivals will be jealous about.
Also by Lance Hornby
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 6 articles by Lance Hornby →

Topics

Central Division Leafs The Maple Leafs Toronto Wild

Subjects

Toronto GPE · 4× Leafs ORG · 3× Wild ORG · 2× Central Division ORG · 1× Kirill Kaprizov PERSON · 1× Leaf ORG · 1× Minnesota Wild ORG · 1× NHL ORG · 1× Teddy Blueger PERSON · 1× The Maple Leafs ORG · 1×

Narrative

“There are a lot of good things we’ve done lately, we just have to piece them all together.” What’s the Leaf history with six-game stands? After close losses to Utah and Montreal, Toronto was outscored 10-3 by New Jersey and Colorado since Sunday, including empty-netters.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-12
But to prevent a fifth straight defeat Thursday at Scotiabank Arena will require a combination of safe cracking and skullduggery, by a Toronto team that hasn’t been thinking fast on its feet at all.
2026-11-12 · Toronto Sun
Why the Maple Leafs have to tame the Wild to avoid a home record wreck · assertive framing

Claims (16 extracted, 1 hedged)

The Maple Leafs have never faced the possibility of losing an entire six-game home stand. asserted
Leafs → face → stand
But to prevent a fifth straight defeat Thursday at Scotiabank Arena will require a combination of safe cracking and skullduggery, by a Toronto team that hasn’t been thinking fast on its feet at all. asserted
that → prevent → feet
The Central Division-leading Minnesota Wild is the NHL’s best defensive team, entering play Thursday with a 2.20 goals-against average and just 24 even-strength goals allowed, compared to the Leafs’ ugly 51. asserted
Wild → lead → 51
“They’re going to be a very tough team and they have some high-end offensive weapons (led by Kirill Kaprizov),” said centre Teddy Blueger. asserted
Blueger → go → Kaprizov
“But we don’t expect it to be easy against any team. asserted
it → expect → team
We’ll just have to find a way. asserted
We → have → way
“There are a lot of good things we’ve done lately, we just have to piece them all together.” What’s the Leaf history with six-game stands? After close losses to Utah and Montreal, Toronto was outscored 10-3 by New Jersey and Colorado since Sunday, including empty-netters. asserted
Toronto → be → netters
After the Wild come the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid. asserted
Oilers → come → Wild
This 11th stand of six or more games since 1972-73 have yielded Toronto’s worst results so far. asserted
stand → yield → results
The closest comparison is January of 1979, a few weeks before coach Roger Neilson was fired and rehired by Harold Ballard in the tragi-comical paper bag caper. asserted
Neilson → fire → caper
That edition had two losses and two ties in its opening four, with another draw and defeat to endure before finally ending with a win. asserted
edition → have → win
At least four losses have happened three times on such a stand, the only instance at Scotiabank Arena in 2002-03, while the best home run record belongs to the explosive Leafs of 1989-90, who won six of the eight straight they played at the Gardens. asserted
they → happen → Gardens
Toronto’s injury list, headlined by the week-to-week absences of forwards Kirill Marchenko (lower body), Colton Sissons (lower) and defencemen Nick Blankenburg (upper body), Marshall Rifai (lower) and Morgan Rielly (lower, day-to-day) could be joined by fourth-line winger Zack MacEwen. uncertain
list → headline → MacEwen
His wrist injury from the Avalanche game was being assessed on Wednesday which kept him from practice, but coach Jim Hiller said there has been some improvement. asserted
Hiller → assess → practice
Seventh defenceman Cole McWard took MacEwen’s place at practice with Blueger and Brandon Duhaime, who played three years for the Wild, his draft team, up to the spring of 2024. asserted
who → take → 2024
“You have good friends over there, good guys, character guys, but no friends when that puck drops,” said Duhaime. asserted
Duhaime → have → friends
Give feedback · no sign-in needed

No sign-in needed for now. Your note is sent without a name, so it cannot be answered.

History Support