Toronto Maple Leafs Rocking First Place in the NHL Standings

The Toronto Maple Leafs have, more or less, been in first place in the NHL standings ever since they beat the Montreal Canadiens in overtime in the first game of the season.

Since then, the Toronto Maple Leafs have amassed a 13-3-2 record that sees them leading the NHL’s second best team by six points, and the second best team in their division by eight points.

Of course some teams have played less games than the Leafs, who have played 18, but lest you think this is a mirage: they are second in points-percentage and if Florida loses tonight, they will be in first.

The Canadian division is almost all the way decided even though we are only about one-third though the season.  Ottawa and Vancouver have already been eliminated from the playoffs, while the Toronto Maple Leafs and Canadiens will finish first and second.

The only drama left is to find out which team out of Calgary, Winnipeg and Edmonton will miss the playoffs.  I will say Calgary, but its a toss up.

As you well know, the NHL is not playing any interdivision games this year, so in case you’ve only been following the Canadian Division, here is a quick update on the rest of the standings.(via NHL.com).

The Rest of the NHL

In the Central Division, the Tampa sits one point behind the Panthers for first, but each team has only played 14 games. The Blackhawks, who are a huge surprise thus far, are currently in second place.  Detroit and Nashville are pretty much eliminated from the playoffs already.

In the East Division, the Bruins, Flyers and Caps are fighting it out for the lead, while Pittsburgh and the Islanders, two teams that hilariously thought the best thing to do was bet their futures on a couple of ex-Leafs GMs, are in the middle of the pack.  Every team in this division still has a shot at the playoffs, although Buffalo and New York better pick it up quick if they want that to be true for longer than the next week.

In the other West division, things are going as predicted as the top three teams are St. Louis, Vegas and Colorado.  This division is hard to get a read on because even the worst team is close to an even record and they’ve had the most shut-downs of any division.  St. Louis and Arizona bizarrely played each other seven times in a row.