Leafs riding high but stay wary about what lies ahead
When lugging around playoff baggage like the Toronto Maple Leafs, rare is the opportunity to set it down and truly appreciate a good regular season run.
Despite the elation of their current seven-game win streak, their longest in 20 years, comes trepidation that A) they’re peaking too soon; and B) the recent success is disproportionate against the opposite conference rather than teams they’ll face in April.
February isn’t finished yet, the band is still likely being broken up to some degree by next week’s NHL trade deadline, while six of their 22 remaining games are measuring stick matches against their most recent Eastern Conference post-season antagonists — Florida, Boston and Tampa.
So, as they winged home from an impressive fourgame Western trip, improving them to 22-5-2 on that side of the fence, they know plenty of work remains.
They can take brief respite to revel in the secondbest point total in the league since Jan. 1, with its current
highest goals-per-game average (3.68), the monster season of Auston Matthews and the circuit’s second-best power play, plus the turnaround of two vital cogs:
goalie Ilya Samsonov and winger Tyler Bertuzzi.
“There’s belief in what they’re doing, belief in the group,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said after Saturday’s 4-3 win in Colorado.
Defenceman Morgan Rielly watched the team win all five games he missed while suspended and two since his return.
“We’ve just been well-rounded, playing within structure,” Rielly said. “Late in games that are close, we’re keeping composure, managing pucks and it seems we’ve taken a step in overall growth.”
Mitch Marner was also keeping things in perspective.
“It’s been exciting and a lot more fun around the locker room when you’re winning. But we just have to make sure we’re doing the right things. When we’re doing stuff right on the ice, it’s showing.”