Leafs-Blue Jackets takeaways: Hildeby’s awful start, Knies’ injury casts shadow, Rielly giving up space

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube evidently had seen enough from his team, pulling the goalie with eight minutes left, as the Columbus Blue Jackets rolled to a 5-1 victory.

Berube pulled Dennis Hildeby and watched as Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli registered the first hat-trick of his career. James van Riemsdyk and Luca Del Bel Belluz added singles for the Blue Jackets, while Auston Matthews scored Toronto’s lone goal, on an excellent set up from William Nylander.

Matthew Knies left the game near the end of the second period and did not return to the contest with an upper-body injury.

Craig Berube on Matthew Knies injury:

“Upper body right now. I’ll know more tomorrow.”

— Matt Larkin (@MLarkinHockey) January 23, 2025

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Hildeby was awful in the losing effort, making 14 saves on 18 shots.

Here are five takeaways from the Maple Leafs’ loss to the Blue Jackets

• Dennis Hildeby submitted an awful start for the Maple Leafs and while it takes more than poor goaltending to arrive at a 5-1 result, Hildeby was the primary culprit. Hildeby didn’t give a chance for the Leafs to win despite a superior shot differential and allowed a weak goal on Fantilli’s short-handed opener. There was nothing he could do about James van Riemsdyk’s goal, but he reacted way too late to Fantilli’s second goal of the contest, which gave the Blue Jackets a 3-0 lead. Although there was poor communication between Pontus Holmberg and Conor Timmins, Hildeby didn’t even react to Luca Del Bel Belluz on the 4-0 goal. It was a rough night for Hildeby and though it’s hard to dictate that the Leafs would’ve won without his poor effort, generating just one goal, they didn’t get anything from their starting goaltender. Joseph Woll will be getting as many starts as possible, until Anthony Stolarz returns from his knee injury.
• Morgan Rielly also had a rough night, and it speaks to one of the recurring problems he’s faced throughout the season: Rielly is affording way too much room for opponents off the rush and he allowed Fantilli to walk in without much contest on the game’s opening goal. A puck hit Rielly in the skates and he couldn’t locate it, while Max Domi and Fraser Minten were caught standing around idly on the Blue Jackets’ third goal. Some of Rielly’s sub-par returns could be excused by the idea that he was carrying his defensive partners for most of the season but placed alongside Jake McCabe, Toronto’s best point-of-attack defender, there’s nothing hiding his poor game, it was a brutal performance in plain sight from a player that may be operating as Toronto’s true No. 4 defenceman at the moment.
• Matthew Knies’ upper-body injury casts a further cloud over this loss. Knies was arguably Toronto’s second-best forward after Nylander through two periods and he’s been in outstanding form since Auston Matthews returned to the lineup on January 4. Toronto posted a plus-8 (10-2) shot differential when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 and he led the Maple Leafs with an 88 percent share of the expected goals at 5-on-5 via Natural Stat Trick, prior to his injury. He’s the bridge between the current contention era and the future, he’s the best winger Matthews and Mitch Marner have ever had together, and he’s an essential part of the team. You don’t want to speculate of course, but there is real concern given that Knies suffered an upper-body injury on November 20, which kept him out of the lineup for 10 days. Craig Berube said we’ll know more Thursday about Knies’ injury and the hope it’s a short-term issue — you always hope for the best, but Knies is clearly one of the Leafs’ best players.
• Ryan Reaves entered his fight of the season in a throwback, heavyweight tilt against Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier. It was a spirited fight and Reaves generated a chance on his first shift after the fight, but that was the extent of his contributions. He may remain in the lineup due to injury but Toronto’s fourth line clearly operates at a higher ceiling when he’s out of the lineup. Due to necessity from injuries, he may be in the lineup with at least three forwards potentially missing Saturday’s clash against the Ottawa Senators.
• William Nylander, The Breakaway Man, continues to be operating in a different tier, along with Auston Matthews. Nylander was Toronto’s best forward by some distance and set up Matthews’ goal with some terrific individual work, tiring out the Blue Jackets’ defence with some clever stickhandling. Nylander was stopped on a breakaway by Elvis Merzlikins — who had a terrific game for the Blue Jackets — and finished with a team-best six shots, along with Matthews. He’s a one-man scoring chance machine and it’s too bad that Nylander and Matthews’ performances are effectively academic in a 5-1 loss.