3 reasons why the Maple Leafs will maintain a top-three spot for the NHL playoffs

The NHL playoffs are just over a month away and the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing in a conference whose playoff picture remains unsettled.

Carolina Hurricanes v Toronto Maple Leafs
Carolina Hurricanes v Toronto Maple Leafs | Claus Andersen/GettyImages
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Nobody has figured out the Maple Leafs since February 13th

While Toronto lost three games in regulation in just over the past month, two of them came against the Boston Bruins in a combined score of 8-2. Joseph Woll was in the net for both games, and they were also the second and third times he had seen action in an NHL net since December 7th, so the Maple Leafs deserve a break here. 

Toronto also didn’t play a pair of bad games, so it’s tough to say that the combined score listed above is a good indicator of how these contests turned out. Toronto had Boston beaten in the Corsi For department both times with a 58.4 and 57.5, respectively, and these numbers have been among the highest since the Maple Leafs started getting hot. 

They also won in the faceoff dot in both games, crushing Boston in the category on March 7th when they won 75.6 percent of their draws. Toronto also beat Boston with an aggregate of 62 shots on goal compared to just 52 for the Bruins. You also saw similar numbers in their loss against Vegas in all of the above categories sans the shots on goal, so even when Toronto has lost, they still played a rather solid game - they just didn’t score and allowed too many goals.

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