Why The Maple Leafs Traded The Rink For The Blue Jays' Diamond At Rogers Centre Amid a Five-Game Losing Streak

Staring down a five-game losing streak, the Maple Leafs spent Friday morning and afternoon at Rogers Centre, trading the usual practice ice at Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke for the Toronto Blue Jays’ field and facilities in hopes a change of scenery might help snap them out of it.

The outing, which included a team meeting, an off-ice workout and batting practice, had been discussed internally for roughly a month. Friday was the day that fit the schedule. The club first informed media of the plan a couple of days earlier, after Toronto had already dropped its fourth straight game. By the time the Leafs arrived downtown, that skid had reached five following Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild, leaving them 8-11-2 and outscored 22-9 during the home stretch.

“I hope it gives us some energy and just gets us away from our regular routine a little bit, which, you know, hasn’t given us the best results,” head coach Jim Hiller said. “So this is something that’s a great day, beautiful down there. We’re thankful for the Blue Jays to bring us in here.”

Hiller made clear the day was not simply about forgetting hockey. The group addressed its recent play in the meeting before shifting to the workout they would have done on a normal off-day, just in a different venue. He noted that today was never scheduled as a practice day anyway, and that the club felt it needed to break up the routine to maintain energy for Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers.

Defenceman Darren Raddysh called the facilities world-class and said the day helped keep morale up by getting the group away from the rink and focused on each other.

“I think it’s good, you know, getting the guys together, trying to keep morale up and just kind of get away from the rink and try to focus on each other and focus on being a team,” Raddysh said. “Vibes are good. I don’t think the vibes are down in the locker room. I think we make a few mistakes in each game and it’s been costing us. And, you know, if we can eliminate that, I think, you know, some results will turn the other way.”

Captain Auston Matthews, who has a baseball background and had hit a home run in batting practice at Rogers Centre before, said the day brought back childhood memories while still keeping the group locked in on the task ahead.

“It’s a long season. I think it’s good to get your mind off of things, you know, mind off of hockey sometimes and just live life too.”

Forward Nick Paul echoed the reset idea while watching teammates take swings.

“Going through something like we’re going through right now, it just takes everyone to come together to get out of it. It’s not easy so something like today, kind of take your mind off, reset, obviously we know what’s at hand tomorrow, we’re going to prepare, but just being out here, being together, getting a little closer, it’s always a little helpful.”

Hiller was blunt about the on-ice issues that have defined the skid. He said the team is seeing progress in some areas but continues to compound mistakes that end up in the net.

“There always are going to be mistakes in the game. There always are going to be,” he said. “So when you make one mistake, you hope that there’s a second player there to clean up the mistake. And if there isn’t, you don’t want to compound it and make it worse. And in some of these cases, we’ve made two or three in a row, and that ends up in the back of your net. So there will be some. We need to do a better job of cleaning up the first one rather than compound it.”

The visit also highlighted the closer relationship between the two Toronto franchises under full Rogers ownership. Rogers completed its acquisition of the remaining stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in early October, bringing the Leafs, Raptors and Scotiabank Arena fully under the same umbrella as the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre. With both clubs now operating under one ownership group, the possibility of more shared use of the Rogers Centre facilities for Leafs workouts or team events in the future is a logical next step, even if nothing formal has been announced.

For now, the immediate focus remains Saturday night against Connor McDavid and the Oilers. Matthews pointed back to Toronto’s 7-2 win in Edmonton earlier this season as a template for the attention to detail required.

“Yeah, it’s always fun. It’s obviously a very big challenge. I mean, every time, but obviously the way that he’s been playing this year, it’s a big challenge for us, and I think we can look back to that game just a few weeks ago and just the way we played and the way we had to play, the attention to the detail that you have to have against that team,” Matthews said. “We definitely need that for tomorrow, and we need to be at our best.”

Hiller declined to say who will start in goal and offered no new updates on injured players beyond confirming that Chris Tanev will play.

As for how the Maple Leafs looked on the field, Paul said it was surprising that Brandon Duhaime did not look good. Meanwhile, Zack MacEwen hit a few home runs and also showed off his fielding skills with a nice cutoff at second base before throwing to first base.

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