Recent development regarding John Tavares good news for Leafs

Sunday evening, the Toronto Maple Leafs were snake-bitten against the Carolina Hurricanes, falling 2-1 to one of the best defensive teams in the NHL. The loss snapped Leafs captain John Tavares' streak of five straight games with two or more points. Prior to Sunday's game, Tavares had 10 points in his previous five games and has looked like the old Tavares offensively.

Through 11 games in March, Tavares is now up to 13 points and is having his most productive month of the season, surpassing his 12 points in October and 11 in December. Centering the second line the past three games and the third line for the previous two, Tavares appears to have taken the earlier demotion to the third line as a challenge and has risen to it.

What makes Tavares' increased production more impressive is the fact that he has just two powerplay points in the past month. Granted the Leafs' powerplay in general has struggled going just 4 for 39 of late, his five-on-five production playing with the likes of Bobby McMann, Nicholas Robertson, and Matthew Knies on his wings shows that he can produce regardless of who he is playing with.

Is this lightning in a bottle or a rejuvenated Tavares? Maybe, but either way, given his recent production, it means that Sheldon Keefe can spread out his stars across three lines when the playoffs begin to get better matchups for all of them when needed.