Toronto Maple Leafs: Ten Point Week In Review

The Toronto Maple Leafs are winners of three straight, and back in a playoff position.

After a few weeks of struggling, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won three straight games and are owners of the second wildcard spot once again.

1) The Leafs are now two points back of Boston with a game in hand. This is great news, because no one should want to play Washington in the first round. They’re the best team in hockey right now and they don’t fall apart until round three in the post-season. Toronto’s best chance at having any success in the playoffs is to get on the path through the Atlantic division.

2) Mitch Marner means so much to this team. The Leafs rookie is back in a groove and had his line as the top three scoring Leafs this week. Bozak (5), Marner (4) and van Riemsdyk (3) led the offense for Toronto all week. The trio scored half of the Leafs goals in the three games. Everything Marner does is amazing and he might even be more fun to watch than Auston Matthews.

3) Marner’s 2.49 P60 at 5v5 bests Matthews 2.20 P60. That’s not insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Toronto has two elite players that are only 19 years old. Playing elite at 5v5 is more valuable than being a powerplay superstar. Kessel, Gaudreau, Pavelski, Tavares, Panarin. Those are five players that both Leafs rookies have more 5v5 points than.

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4) Frederik Andersen had a .940 (all-situation) save percentage over the past three games. It was a full team effort to get these last three wins and Andersen was a big part of that. He gets shelled on most nights, and in these last three games he was a rockstar.

5) There were rumors earlier this week that the Leafs may or may not have a side-bar deal with the Vegas Golden Knights. The rumor was that Vegas will select Eric Fehr. If this comes true, and was part of the Fehr deal to being with, I’ll rescind my request for Lamoriello’s head. It makes no sense to me, though, why a new team with their pick of the litter at the expansion draft would take a bad player like Fehr. Simply being a vet means absolutely nothing if you aren’t good at the game.

6) Jake Gardiner being awesome update: two assists in three games while struggling in the possession department (49.5% CF at 5v5). Just kidding, he didn’t struggle in comparison to the entire team. Toronto was 50% CF against Detroit, 39.6% against Carolina and 50% against Philadelphia. This just in: Jake’s still good.

7) Auston Matthews has now gone five straight games without a point. Is it a slump? On the score-sheet, yeah it’s a slump. Calling it otherwise is just ignorant homer talk. That said, the attention he gets and the things he does other than get on the sheet are major factors in the Leafs success. Marner gets to breathe a little more because of Matthews taking so much attention.

8) It’s also worth noting that even with five games of blanks, Matthews is still 6th in the NHL in primary points at even strength. Sixth. That means if you aren’t named Crosby, Malkin, McDavid, Zetterberg or Zucker then you are looking up at Matthews in an important offensive statistic. These aren’t passenger points.

9) While Toronto struggled, other teams didn’t. That makes these three wins so much more important. In their last ten games: Boston (7-3-0), New York Islanders (6-3-1), Tampa (7-2-1). The Leafs can pretty much put the Panthers to sleep with a win in game #68, which will eliminate another potential threat.

10) Mike Babcock’s love for certain players was evident again this week, as Nikita Soshnikov continues to play despite being, probably, the Leafs worst player. All of the intangibles, grit or anything else that is a made up statistic can’t save him from how poor he is at 5v5.

Bonus) Martin Marincin actually got to play. That’s fantastic.