The Leafs appear to have found their groove at the right time of the year, priming themselves up for the playoffs. The Buds are winners of 9 of their last 12 games, going 9-1-2 over that stretch, earning 20 of a possible 24 points over that span.
While that's impressive in and of itself, an even more impressive statistic is what the Leafs' top line of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Michael Bunting have been able to do at 5v5 over the last 25 games.
Per The Athletic's Jonathan Willis, Marner, Matthews and Bunting rank 1, 2 and 3 for points at 5v5 over that span. Marner has notched 31 5v5 points in the last 25, while Matthews sits just behind him in the 2nd spot with 29 5v5 points, and Bunting rounds out the group with 24 5v5 points. Patrick Kane (CHI) and Roman Josi (NSH) are the next two players on that list with 23 5v5 points apiece over the last 25.
The Leafs remain one of the lowest teams in the league in terms of drawing penalties, so, as you can imagine, if they were even somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of power play opportunities, it's not a stretch to suggest that the Leafs may have been able to put together a President's Trophy winning season. As it stands now, the Leafs sit in 4th place overall, trailing only Carolina, Florida and Colorado in the standings.
Man, I don't even want to think about where the Leafs would be right now with pedestrian production at 5v5. Thankfully, because of 16, 34 and 58, we don't have to worry about that.
