"Over the last couple of years a lot of NHL analysts have used American Thanksgiving as the benchmark to see which teams will make the playoffs. It's usually at least semi reliable, and right now the Toronto Maple Leafs are sitting in a pretty good position just one point behind the Atlantic Division leading Tampa Bay Lightning. Pretty good for a team without it's franchise player and in the middle of a contract dispute with one of it's young stars. Head coach Mike Babcock was asked about how he felt the team was doing at the Thanksgiving benchmark. «Obviously ecstatic. Any way you look at it we've got off to a good start. We think our team's going to be better, we have significant pieces not here and they will be here."
Auston Matthews is the only player currently on injured reserve, unless of course Nathan Horton is making a miraculous comeback, however Babcock's mention of "significant pieces" could be the team is getting closer to signing William Nylander. Fingers crossed.....
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