5 Observations on the Toronto Maple Leafs Six Game Winning Streak

The Toronto Maple Leafs have completely turned their season around.

After struggling for consistency throughout the first four months of the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won six in a row, making their February record an impressive 7-2.

The reasons for the Leafs struggles this season have been obvious to everyone: they entered the season with a weak blue-line, an injury prone rookie goalie and a goalie they took to arbitration.

Additionally, there was some question to how the team would replace Ryan O'Reilly and Michael Bunting, and for the most part they have not been able to.

However, what they have done is finally find a way to work the disperate parts of their lineup into a workable whole. Initially, having David Kampf - a one dimensional defense only player - as the NHL's most expensive fourth-liner was a major problem because he was paired in the bottom-six with a one-dimensional offensive player, Max Domi.

This was a problem because having Ryan Reaves or Noah Gregor made the fourth line incapable of defensive assignments, while to make use of Max Domi at 3C Keefe had to play him extremely sheltered minutes.

The solution appears to be using Domi on the second line with Bertuzzi and Nylander where his two wingers can evelvate his offensive game and make it so his defensive deficiancies aren't so glaring.

With Tavares playing 3C with a couple of high-scoring rookies (McMann and Robertson are scoring as much or more per minute than William Nylander at 5v5) the Leafs look to be running a very solid top-nine, and the team as a whole just looks so much dangerous.

Lost in the shadow of Robertson and McMann's breakouts is Pontus Holmberg who is giving the Leafs by far the best 4th line minutes they've seen this year to date.

And there is also Timothy Liljegren's rise into a solid top-pairing contributor.

Here then are 5 observations about the Toronto Maple Leafs in light of the recent hot streak. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).