Toronto Maple Leafs: NHL Standings and the Upcoming Week
The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Calgary Flames in overtime to extend their team-record points streak.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are now 10-0-4 in their last 14 games, and have gone an entire month without a regulation loss.
The streak has seen the Leafs climb the standings after some early season struggles that left them way behind a Bruins team that seemingly never loses.
The Bruins, tied with the Devils, now maintain just a single point lead over the Leafs.
The Leafs have played three more games, but they have just one more regulation loss than the Bruins do. Toronto’s current .724 points percentage is third best in the NHL and is easily good enough to win the division, conference and league in the regular season. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
It should also be noted that Boston lost to the Coyotes on Friday. I point this out not to shame them, but because the Leafs also lost to the Coyotes this year and the city nearly had a meltdown.
Good teams can lose to bad teams, it happens.
Toronto Maple Leafs and the Week Ahead
The Leafs, who remain unbeaten in December, will take on the Anaheim Might Ducks, New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals this week.
Like every week in December, they will play a light Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule.
The Leafs have lost to the Ducks in overtime, and beaten the Capitals in regulation so far this year.
They have not faced the Rangers as of yet.
Lost in the hoopla of recent back-to-back shutouts by Murray and Samsonov, and the now 22 game points streak by Marner, as well as William Nylander’s career best five point night, is the fact that Auston Matthews is heating up.
He has scored goals in three straight games, and six of his last seven. He has goals in nine of his last 14 games.
His 15 goals on the year are two less than teammate Nylander has, and ten less than league leader Connor McDavid.
Matthews is also just 12th in overall points, but you can expect him to start climbing both lists from here on out.
Though he has five of them recently, Matthews still has just eight 5v5 goals on the season, while Sidney Crosby leads the NHL with 14.
I doubt Matthews will catch him over the next week, but give him two or three weeks and he will. The craziest thing about the Toronto Maple Leafs current run of success is that Auston Matthews can actually contribute much more than he has.
Next. How the Leafs Stole the Draft. dark
He’s contributed a lot, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that he’s still several levels below where he can be, and that should terrify the rest of the NHL.