TORONTO -- Things are going so poorly for the Toronto Maple Leafs that they’ve decided to try another sport entirely.
With the day off Friday, the Maple Leafs gathered at Rogers Centre for a team workout on the field, all decked out in Blue Jays gear. After going through some more familiar off-ice workouts, a group of Leafs dug in for some at-bats off the pitching machine, too.
That group included William Nylander, who took a turn feeding balls into the machine, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Easton Cowan and No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna.
The Maple Leafs are stuck in an 0-5 homestand down the street at Scotiabank Arena, which wraps up Saturday night when Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers come to town. Now owning an 8-11-2 record and sitting near the bottom of a stacked Atlantic Division, the Leafs haven’t offered much solace to Toronto sports fans who just watched the Blue Jays finish last in the American League East, a major letdown after their run to Game 7 of the World Series in 2025.
There’s always been plenty of crossover between the Leafs and Blue Jays in Toronto. Last Maple Leafs season, a group of Blue Jays attended together and watched from a box. That included Kazuma Okamoto, who got the full Canadian experience.
The Blue Jays had some hockey players on their own roster, too, in George Springer and Ernie Clement, who always keeps a hockey stick dangling out of the slots above his locker typically reserved for bats. If things keep going in this direction for the Maple Leafs, Clement might be centering the third line by Christmas.