Maple Leafs Now Have a Massive Advantage Over the Rest of the NHL

The NHL's regular season is a long and winding road where you have to maneuver around a variety of obstacles like scheduling and injuries.

Any time you're given a leg up over your counterparts, you need to take advantage and the Maple Leafs have the perfect opportunity to secure the Atlantic Division title with the easiest remaining schedule of any team in the league.

This week, "Slapshot" posted the strength of schedule remaining for the entire league and the Maple Leafs ranked 32nd as the most favourable compared to the Detroit Red Wings who have the hardest schedule on tap.

However, it seems that perhaps things will be balancing out as the Maple Leafs have had the 6th hardest schedule to date according to Power Rankings Guru. The Leafs trail only Ottawa, Chicago, Montreal, Boston, and Philadelphia in that department.

A more favourable schedule should help considering the Leafs just went through a recent stretch where they played Carolina, Vancouver (twice), Dallas, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Minnesota, and Edmonton.

Some of their upcoming matchups include games against Chicago, Nashville, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia while also facing off against San Jose twice. They still have 5 sets of back-to-backs coming up, but with a lesser schedule to contend with, perhaps Toronto can go on a bit of a run here coming up.

The division crown has been in plain sight all season long and the Leafs currently sit 3 points back of the Florida Panthers but carry 2 games in hand.

Florida does have one of the easier schedules remaining as well as they're ranked 26th, so a slug-fest between the two heavyweights for top spot should continue until the final days of the regular season.