Toronto Maple Leafs Put Three Streaks on the Line

The Toronto Maple Leafs will once again take on the Vancouver Canucks tonight.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have clinched a playoff spot, and are almost 30 points ahead of the Canucks in the standings, so on the surface this game might seem skippable.

However, if you did skip it, you’d be missing out on a lot of streak-related drama.

Not only are the Leafs winners of four straight, but they’ve put together a streak of three straight games winning 4-1.  On top of that, they’ve scored in 15 straight periods, something the team hasn’t done in 30-odd years.

Toronto Maple Leafs Go Streaking

Overall, the Leafs have lost just 3 times in regulation over their last 18 games.  Their record over this time is 12-3-3.  They have currently sandwhiched a four game winning streak and a nine game points steak (8-0-1) around a five game losing streak which saw them get points in two of the games.

In the span of this incredible 12-3-3 run (which coincides with Matthews injured wrist healing up enough for him to take a shot) they have 27 out of 36 points which is exactly 75% of the possible points.  That is incredible, and here’s the context:

The best team in the NHL overall right now, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, has a .730 points percentage, while a full season at a .750 clip would make a team the 16th best of all-time, with five of those teams being pre 1970 teams.

In fact, the Leafs, for the last 18 games, have out-paced the 83-84 and 85-86 Oilers.  Take that people who thought Kyle Dubas was the wrong man for the job!

The Leafs overall points percentage is currently fifth best in the NHL, and they’ve got an outside chance to finish the year as a top 50 all-time regular season  team, by winning percentage.  Keep in mind also that Carolina, Florida and Tampa all play in a division with five teams who wouldn’t make the playoffs in the Canadian Division. 

This team is incredible, and we are in the midst of the most exciting time this franchise has seen since the halcyon days of the late sixties.  Any combination of Leafs wins and Oilers losses that totals seven points will see the Leafs clinch first place in the NHL’s toughest division.

It’s all very exciting, and incredibly, there is still enough drama to make tonight’s game interesting. The Leafs will likely dress Jack Campbell, but beyond that, who knows what kind of wacky lineup we might see?

I really liked seeing Rasmus Sandin on the top line and that makes me very interesting to see how Justin Holl is deployed going forward, and interested as well to see if the Leafs ultimate make the right decision to leave Travis Dermott in the lineup when Bogosian is back (because Sandin ain’t going anywhere).

Anyways, here’s to a fun game tonight.