The Toronto Maple Leafs have fifteen games remaining in the regular season and are sitting snug in the third spot of the Atlantic Division. As it stands today, and how it looks like it will pan out, the Leafs will square off against Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs.

Goal scoring machine Auston Matthews has 46 on the season and has no plans of slowing down as the 2019/20 regular season winds down. The only player above Matthews in goals is David Pastrnak who has one goal more. Alexander Ovechkin trails Matthews by a goal and perhaps it’s not too late to count Leon Draisaitl into the conversation after he scored four goals the other night totally him to 43 on the season.

Auston leads the NHL in goals for while playing 5 on 5 with 35 goals and Pastrnak has 19 power play goals where Matthews only has 11. What can I say, we have more talent spread around the power play. Both players are great goal scorers and one could argue Pastrnak has better line mates, but really; it matters not. All that matters at this point is the Leafs continue to put up points on the board and get themselves into the playoffs.

I’m quite fond of the Tampa Bay matchup. Sure they can score goals, a lot of them; but guess what, so can the Leafs. Toronto has had some tough times and extremely difficult matchups in the first round. Part of it is the horrendous playoff format the NHL has setup, it’s shocking they haven’t made any adjustments to the way it’s setup. Really, how hard is it to have the eight seed play against the first seed, second against the seventh, third against the sixth and finally fourth against the fifth?

It certainly makes more sense to me.

With the amount of money the NHL makes these days, I’d even welcome crossing the Conferences in the playoffs and having a 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, etc. Sure it would cost more and there would be more travel time. But guess what? This opens up the chance of an original six team in the Eastern Conference playing against another in the Stanley Cup Finals. After all the shuffling there are five out of six original teams in the East (Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings). This leaves only Chicago in the West, which limits any great old time rivalries in the playoffs or Cup Finals. What a joke!

Something’s got to give, I don’t know when and if this is a topic of conversation in the NHL. But it should be.

Another late game tonight as the Leafs continue their road trip. The Kings will host the Leafs and this will be the first time they have played against each other since the Leafs acquired both Clifford and Campbell.

Tonight’s game should be an easy win, but of course it won’t be as that wouldn’t be very Leafs like now would it?

The Panthers are in tough tonight as they play a red hot Boston Bruins team who are 8-2 in their last ten games. Florida is chasing the Leafs and are currently five points back, but have a game in hand. If the Buds can pocket two points against the Kings tonight and the Bruins continue their winning ways that will be a juicy 7 points lead the Leafs will have over the Panthers. That is a lot of points to catch up at this point of the season and would position the Leafs will as we prepare to head down the final stretch.

The last ten games of the season are going to be heavy duty. It sure would be nice to send Kucherov and the Bolts packing in the first round! Zip Zap Zoot!

Let’s get the two points tonight and watch Auston take the scoring lead!

Go Leafs Go!

Thanks for reading.

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