Leafs on the upswing at the right time as rest of Atlantic struggles

Don’t look now, but the “struggling” Toronto Maple Leafs may have just found their stride. After a disappointing start to the season that saw them lingering near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, the Leafs have won five of their last seven games, and have earned at least a point in their last five.

Monday’s 2-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning vaulted Toronto back into the heat of the scramble in the Atlantic Division. They’re now six points clear of the bottom-dwelling Buffalo Sabres, and only three points back of the division-leading Detroit Red Wings. While the Atlantic is still an amorphous mess, with no team seperating themselves from the pack, the good news for the Leafs is they seem to be playing the best hockey in the division. They’ve earned 14 points in their last 10 games, which is a better total than any other Atlantic team in their last 10.

On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discussed Toronto’s recent surge, and their outlook within the Atlantic Division.

Tyler Yaremchuk: A big win for the Toronto Maple Leafs in an Atlantic Division that was very competitive early on. We’re now at a point where there’s only two teams in the Atlantic who have more than five wins in their last 10 games. One of them in the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have lost four in a row, they’re 6-4 in their last 10. Toronto’s kind of ticking upwards at a really nice moment and starting to get themselves back in the mix.

It’s kind of funny how much it’s similar to a lot of Canadian teams, or a lot of teams in big markets. You laugh, after all the struggles and the big stories this year, they’re three points out of the top spot in their division. Things are starting to look OK out in Toronto.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…