With more than a third of the NHL season in the rearview mirror, we can begin to assess whether or not the Toronto Maple Leafs are playoff contenders or pretenders.
Given the parity in today's NHL, the primary goal of every team is to make the playoffs. From there, great goaltending, tight defensive play, timely goal scoring and a good dose of puck luck usually marks the Stanley Cup champion.
With the new playoff format, the top three division finishers get automatic spots. After that, the rest of the conference battles it out for two wild-card spots. Entering Tuesday night's play, the Leafs would be the second wild-card team with a four-point cushion on the third-place wild-card team.
Recent history tells us that it is exceedingly difficult to make up more than a four-point deficit on the eighth spot after the first part of November. Essentially, with the "extra" points available for overtime and shootout losses, teams continue to pick up points even when they don't find the win column.
Of course this applies to all teams, but we don't often see teams' form change drastically by this point in the season. The t ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by James Onusko
Are the Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Contenders or Pretenders in 2013-14?
December 10th, 2013 by James Onusko Leave a reply »
Advertisement