If the NHL off-season had referees, the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ social media team might have just earned two minutes for roughing.
The Leafs took a playful shot at the Ottawa Senators on Thursday as NHL clubs unveiled their 2026-27 regular season schedules.
Like many teams, Toronto rolled out a humorous social media video to announce its schedule. As part of the skit, two Leafs employees sorted through a fictional lost-and-found, cataloguing items supposedly left behind by other NHL teams before shipping them back.
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The collection included plenty of familiar stereotypes, including Buffalo wing sauce for the Sabres, steamies for the Canadiens, and a bag of clam chowder for the Bruins.
But when it came time to reveal the Leafs’ games against Ottawa, the item pulled from the lost-and-found was Brady Tkachuk‘s podcast microphone, still attached to its boom arm.
One of the actors asked, “Do you think we have to send this to Florida now instead?” before slapping a Panthers sticker over top of the Senators logo on the shipping box.
It was a playful jab in the Battle of Ontario, but the Leafs probably could have gone much harder.
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After all, just eight days ago, Daniel Alfredsson, the greatest player in Senators history, left Ottawa to join Toronto’s coaching staff. Mocking that move might have stung even more than chirping the Sens about Tkachuk’s exit. But perhaps the video had already been completed by then.
In any event, the Leafs won the social media exchange on Thursday, but the games that matter begin on Oct. 3, when Toronto hosts Ottawa in the Senators’ season opener.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
