The Toronto Maple Leafs enter the NHL's ill-advised 4 Nations Break with a loss to the Vancouver Canucks and their best player on a six-game goaless streak.
Now, the Toronto Maple Leas will sit back and watch as the fate of their season is decided by whether or not Matthews, Marner or Nylander suffer an injury during this high-risk and completley unnecessary cash-grab.
The Leafs had a shot at entering the break in first place, but it was not to be, as they went a lousy 3-3 to round out this portion of the schedule and find themselves 3 points back of Florida with a 33-20-2 record.
The Leafs are 10th overall by points, and ninth overall by points percentage. They are virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs, but I'd say that they are over-achieving and are not where they should be in relation to being a top contender and having the best chances at winning a Stanley Cup.
The Toronto Maple Leafs at the Break: Stats, Standings, and Trade Plans
The Leafs find themselves a notch below the NHL's top contenders, so their trade plans are key to their future success. Will they add a top pairing defenseman such as Noah Dobson and turn themselvces into a top team?
Or do they go cheap and conservative and add Luke Schenn and Scott Laughton, doubling down on the crappy job they did last year at the deadline?
It remains to be seen.
That said, the Leafs are a team that is capable of winning the Cup, so should they adequetly adress their needs between now and March, they should give themselves a great shot at winning.
The Leafs don't play until February 22nd against Carolina.
Stats at the Break
The Leafs are 20th in puck-possession, 12th in shots-for percentage, 20th in expected-goals percentage, 21st in expected-goals-for, and 15th in expected goals against.
The Leafs are a mediocre team, as seen by their statistics, but they are doing so well because of their goaltending. The Leafs are ranked 4th in 5v5 save-percentage.
The Leafs have just the 12th most power-play goals this season. Their expected goals percentage on the power-play ranks 27th. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).
The Leafs enter the break in decent shape to save their season - they've picked up some lucky results, so if they can add to their team before the deadline they should be able to set themselves up for playoff success. However, the stats clearly show that if this team is not upgraded, they have very little chance of winning anything.