Toronto Maple Leafs: President’s Trophy Possible
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs have been on fire lately.
Despite a rough go of it around the Holiday Season, the Leafs have stormed through late January and pretty much of all February, and now have an outside shot at the President’s Trophy.
The Leafs – laughably thought by some to still be ‘rebuilding’ – are five points back of first overall in the NHL Standings. Las Vegas (incredibly) has 86 points in 81 games, while the Leafs 81 in 63. The games in hand might make it difficult for the Leafs to actually pull it off, but it’s quite impressive nevertheless.
Now, obviously Vegas isn’t the best team in the NHL. If you look at the Leafs and the teams ahead of them, you can make a pretty good case that the Leafs have the best roster. The Clear-cut best team in hockey is the Pittsburgh Penguins, but as for the teams actually ahead of the Leafs, you can’t say that any of them are significantly better.
Toronto Maple Leafs Recent Hot Streak
Since late December, when the Leafs went on a nine game streak without a regulation win, they are 12-3. That is an insane run. Other than losses to Pittsburgh, Boston and Colorado, the Leafs have not lost to anyone.
Frederick Andersen has played like a Vezina Candidate, Mike Babcock has moved into the Jack Adams conversation, and Mitch Marner and Nazem Kadri have gone bonkers. Kadri has points in 10 of his last 14 games, with 17 total over that time. And Marner’s been even better.
While you have to credit Andersen for much of this (a huge stretch of this winning streak featured the Leafs being vastly outplayed and winning because of him) the fact that the Leafs can throw Matthews/Nylander and then Kadri/Marner at teams back-to-back is proving to be nearly unstoppable.
More from Editor In Leaf
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Robertson Healthy and Ready
- Ryan Reaves Will Have Zero Impact on Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Max Domi In Top-Six a HUGE Mistake
- Top 10 Scandals in the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Results from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament
The only real problem facing the Toronto Maple Leafs (besides the recent shoulder injury to Auston Matthews) is that they are not winning the possession battle. Despite their recent run of victories, the Leafs are rarely ever getting more shot-attempts than their opponent. Very few teams, over any significant stretch of time, can win more than they lose while being on the wrong side of the shot-attempt battle.
The Leafs have been fortunate that Freddie Andersen has been playing so good, because other wise they might not be doing so well. While it’s exciting to win so many games, goalies just can’t play at this level for very long. It’s nice while it lasts, but in order to win over the long term, the Leafs will have to address their inability to prevent shots by adding some quality defensive players to their roster.
Next: Leafs Rumours and Targets
The Trade Deadline is Monday, and it will be interesting to see what happens. Regardless, other than me, I don’t think too many people predicted the Toronto Maple Leafs would be competing for the President’s Trophy this late in the year.