The Toronto Maple Leafs can enter the Christmas Break fully satisfied.
Not every team gets to win the Stanley Cup, and the Toronto Maple Leafs have had some horrible luck getting out of the first round.
That lack of playoff success not withstanding, this version of the team has become an absolute force. They are the NHL’s best team and there are reasons to think they will only get better as they get healthier, and Auston Matthews gets hot.
Yesterday afternoon they took on the Philadelphia Flyers and easily beat them for their second win in a row. That doesn’t really do it justice though – they won both games convincingly, and one of them was against the team that has been to the Finals three straight years. The Leafs made them look like chumps.
Toronto Maple Leafs’s Historic Run
The Toronto Maple Leafs almost made history, falling just short of a franchise record when they got points in 15 straight games.
They went 11-1-3 in November.
They went over a month between regulation losses.
It wasn’t until the 31st game of the season where they lost consecutive games in regulation.
At one point, they were on a 15-1-5 run.
Since October 30th, they are 17-3-5 which is 31% of the season, and a points-percentage of .780 in a league where the best team of all time was .825 (so not too shabby!).
The Toronto Maple Leafs enter the Christmas Break with a 24-7-6 record for 48 points (second in the NHL) and a .706 points percentage (3rd), but keep in mind that they are also the NHL’s most injured team, and the team that suffered the most significant injuries, at least as of December 16th.
The Leafs are 5th in the NHL in expected-goals percentage, they are 4th in save-percentage and 10th in shooting percentage, so what they are doing is fairly sustainable. Of course they aren’t likely to continue to flirt with an .800 points-percentage, but they should be able to maintain around .700.
The goaltending might drop off (in fact, it is likely) but Matthews will most likely start to score more multi-point games, while the team will get healthier, meaning they should continue being a top team without too much trouble. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
The Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning are starting to put some distance between themselves and the wild card teams, so only a division win will prevent the Leafs from facing one of the other two best teams in the NHL.
The Bruins are a good and respectable team, but they don’t have the Leafs depth or star power, and they are likely outperforming what their record should be by a greater degree than the Leafs are.
If the Leafs can catch Boston, they can likely open the playoffs against a much weaker Islanders or Capitals team.