Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been remarkable this year, Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Carolina about 17 hours after the team wrapped a game vs. Washington not withstanding.

Currently, they’re tied with Buffalo for first in the Northeast, which approximately no one saw coming heading into the season, and that’s remarkable enough in itself. Very few people, if any, likely had the Phil Kessel leading the league in goals and points around the quarter-pole, and certainly his play this season has been nothing short of revelatory. He scored twice more in the loss to Carolina, running his total to 16 in 21 games.

His longest streak without a point this season stands at one game, and it’s happened a whopping four times. His longest goalless drought was four games (which for some preposterous reason led many to wonder if he was in a “slump”).

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If this were any team besides the Maple Leafs, people would be raving about their ability to continue to be competitive with that many important players out. Their having just hung seven on the Capitals, who at the time were leading their division, was chalked up to Washington being bad. The truth likely lies somewhere between that and the Leafs simply being a well-composed hockey team that can turn off-games into waking nightmares for opposing goaltenders.

Given what we’ve seen recently (namely, the team going 6-7-2 without Reimer), it’s probably not unreasonable to assume the true measure of this team was likely far closer to the iteration seen during the first few weeks of the season when they went 7-2-1.

When they get everyone back healthy, or find a better option in net on the open market, this Maple Leafs team could very well become a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.

Truth

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