The Leafs are facing an unprecedented challenge in the Atlantic Division
Halfway through the 2021-22 NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are well on the way to their best-ever record.
Through 41 games, the 28-10-3 Leafs are set up for an 118-point season.
For a team that has never topped 105 points in its 104-season history, that should be cause to celebrate.
And yet they sit third place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division, 10 points behind Florida and five points back of Tampa Bay.
According to MoneyPuck.com’s playoff odds, the Leafs have a 99.9% chance of making the playoffs, but so do Florida and Tampa. A fourth-place Boston also has high odds at 95.2% as well.
Toronto has a thirteen-point buffer over fifth-place Detroit, with five games in hand.
It’s easy to make things all doom and gloom with the Toronto, with a history of heartbreaking losses and collapses still eternally locked in everyone’s mind.
But they’ve found a way to make it through just about every bump in the road, losing two or more games in a row just once since October 27.
“We like that our team has lots of fight in it and keeps pushing,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said after Toronto rallied for a four-goal third period to beat New Jersey 6-4 last night.
With 41 games left in the season, making the playoffs for the sixth year in a row are a near-certainty for the Leafs, but the chase to top their division is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the NHL.
Florida is on pace for 123 points, Toronto is on pace for 118, and Tampa is on pace for 116. Even Boston is on pace for 103 points, which is the same point total Montreal had when they won the division back in 2016-17, and higher than every Leafs season but two in their history.
Twenty-eight teams in NHL history have hit over 116 points in a season.
No other season has had more than two teams hit 116 points in a season across the league.
The Atlantic Division alone has three on track to hit that total this year, with Colorado, Carolina, and Minnesota all slated to hit that mark as well.
In nine seasons since the NHL went to an 82 game schedule in 1995-96, the Presidents’ Trophy winner had less than 116 points.
You probably get the idea by now: Toronto is in a very, very competitive division once again.
Sure, there are four teams in Detroit, Buffalo, Ottawa, and Montreal who are miles away from a playoff berth, but the top four squads are in the midst of one of the most remarkable dogfights in league history.
In some ways, it could matter a great deal where the Leafs end up in the standings, with a first-place finish potentially lining them up against a presumably weaker wild card opponent. As the Leafs proved with last year’s first-round playoff loss to Montreal, being a heavy favourite doesn’t always mean much come postseason time.
There’s no fast-forward button to seasons’ end, as much as many Leafs’ fans would like that. For now, all they can do is play the 41 games in front of them in one of the toughest divisions you’ll ever see.