Major, eye-opening development regarding Leafs forward Max Domi

Matthews may have been the 1st star of the game after a 5-point outing, but he simply doesn't achieve that without the brilliant play of Domi, who put up 4 assists, including 2 primary assists on the evening in a 7-3 victory in hostile territory against the Washington Capitals.

After a very slow start to his tenure in Toronto, Domi has really come alive of late. The 2nd generation Leaf has 7 points (1G, 6A) in his last 5 games and plays a a greasy game, getting involved in the post-whistle scrums and won't back down from a fight. While playing mostly 3rd line minutes, Domi has been one of the most underrated players on any team this season. The numbers back that up.

With all of the talk of how important special teams are, 5v5 production is the most important area of the game to excel in, since most of the game is played at 5v5. How does Domi play into this? Well, in terms of 5v5 assists this season, there are only 6 names ahead of him - and they belong to some pretty heavy hitters. Thus far, only Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stutzle and Quinn Hughes have posted more 5v5 assists than Max Domi. Let that sink in for a second.

I don't think I need to explain why this is such a big deal. Domi, who is averaging just 13:25 in ice time this season, plays a lot less than any of these guys, so to be in the mix for most 5v5 assists over the course of the season, that's pretty impressive. Hold on, though, because the stat gets even crazier when breaking it down by 5v5 assist per minute. When broken down like that, Domi sits second behind only Connor McDavid, who is on pace for 100 assists this season. Absolutely insane.

Anyone who says they were expecting this level of efficiency from Max Domi when the Leafs signed him to a 1-year deal worth $3M last summer is probably not being overly honest with themselves. Still, he's been a very pleasant surprise this season.

Domi has only produced 39 points in his 68 games played this season, but when you consider that his usage has been mostly 3rd line usage, it's pretty impressive.