The Toronto Maple Leafs are going head to head with the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night and it’s a must-win for both clubs.
If you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you want to see them win and get the two points on any given night. But, with a race to grab a playoff spot this close, there’s little room for error.
Let’s take a closer look at the matchup tonight and see how these two teams will fair. One’s coming out with two points, I’m just hoping it’s going to be the Leafs.
Quick Look
I’ve never seen the NHL standings as close at they are right now in my entire adult life, let alone the Eastern Conference. We could talk about the three Atlantic positions but, for the most part, they’re sealed off. In that case, let’s focus in on the second Wild Card spot.
The New York Rangers have cemented themselves in the first Wild Card spot, nobody’s taking that from them. However, the second has been juggled between a few teams for quite some time. Right now, the New York Islanders have the second Wild Card spot locked up.
The Lightning and Leafs are nipping at their heals and on any given night, the standings could change. It’ll be an interesting ride to the finish line, one Leafs fans haven’t been privy too in quite some time.
It’s hard to say that there aren’t more than three teams contesting for the second Wild Card spot but, it seems as though the three listed above are the real contenders for it.
The Standings
| Team | GP | W | L | OT | PTS | ROW |
| Islanders (Wild Card) | 69 | 33 | 25 | 11 | 77 | 32 |
| Lightning | 69 | 34 | 26 | 9 | 77 | 30 |
| Leafs | 68 | 31 | 23 | 14 | 76 | 30 |
For those that don’t know, ROW is the total number of regulation and overtime wins a team has. This is the tie-breaker for teams that have the same amount of points in the standings. Some might have thought that teams (+/-) would break a tie but, that would be incorrect.
For example, the Lightning are +4 while the Islanders are -5. But, the Islanders ROW (32) is higher than the Lightning’s (30) ergo, why they’re ahead of them in the standings with the same amount of points.
Schedules
The Leafs have one game in hand on the Lightning coming into Thursday’s match, which is a good thing. But, this isn’t the last time these two teams will see each other in the regular season as they have one more game against each other on April 6 in Toronto. The Leafs have 14 games remaining and the Lightning have just 13.
The schedule for the final stretch isn’t a nice one for the buds. They’ll be playing top teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Lightning of course. Those are just the matchups that appear to be tougher on paper, though. None of their remaining games will be easy, all will be a challenge.
If you take a look at the Lightning’s schedule for the remainder of the regular season, it looks a little more promising. Again, none of their games will be easy wins but, they aren’t playing some of the top rated teams in the league as much as the Leafs will be.
Hypothetical Fun
Let’s play a scenario out from Thursday night’s festivities that favors the Leafs. The Islanders lose in regulation to the Winnipeg Jets and the Lightning also lose in regulation, meaning the Leafs win and get two points.
If that were the case, the Leafs would jump both clubs and take the second Wild Card spot with a game in hand on both teams.
However, we can play out the scenario in a negative light as well. Let’s say the Islanders win in any fashion and the Lightning beat the Leafs in regulation. We would then see both clubs with 79 points.
The Leafs would then be three points back from the Islanders and Lightning and their hopes of making the playoffs would be even further away. They need to win tonight to stay in the race and contest for that Wild Card spot.