Toronto Maple Leafs: Best Month, First Place, Another Win

Setting a few team records, the Toronto Maple Leafs won yet another game last night, beating the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 5-1.

The Toronto Maple Leafs completed a perfect road trip and completed what turns out to be the best month in franchise history.

Their seventh straight road victory also ties a franchise record, according to the TSN broadcast of last nights game.

The win puts the Leafs alone in first place in Atlantic, and keeps them tied at the very tippity top of the NHL standings.

First place, baby!

Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ducks

This wasn’t the Leafs best game, but it does continue a recent trend of racking up 5v5 goals. (naturalstattrick.com).

After being in last place in 5v5 shooting percentage for most of the year, the Toronto Maple Leafs have now risen to 23rd.  Thanks to Joseph “Sample Size Superstar” Woll and Jack “Hasek” Campbell, the goaltending hasn’t taken a dip either, which explains the current four game win streak.

Go back a week and the Leafs played three games – Preds, Penguins, Rangers – and won two of them despite scoring just a combined two 5v5 goals.

Since then, 14 5v5 goals in the last four games.  It’s almost as if a totally predictable correction to the norm is occurring.

Last night saw them score four times at 5v5, but it was Jack Campbell who won the game with 39 saves.  Here is how good he is doing:  I rejected a good trade offer in fantasy for him and countered by asking for McDavid.

Though it’s a long way to the end of the season, Campbell is easily the NHL’s best goalie right now, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are clearly the best team (no matter what TSN says, jeez).

Up next is the biggest test left for the Leafs, having recently beaten Tampa Bay.  On Wednesday the boys in blue and white will be going for their third straight five-game winning streak, and 15th win in 17 tries against the Colorado Avalanche, the class of the Western Conference and potential Stanley Cup Final opponent.

The Avalanche are a great team, but even better, ex-Leafs player Nazem Kadri is having a career season so far with 27 points in 18 games.  Now if he can just get through a playoff series without being suspended…..

The Leafs have a light schedule this week, with just Colorado on Wednesday, then back-to-backs on Saturday and Sunday , once again with International Travel involved.