The Maple Leafs and mapleleafs.com are trademarks of MLSE. torontomapleleafs.com is the official Web site of the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club. Shop (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)There may or may not be a playoff tournament this year, but if there is, the Toronto Maple Leafs will have qualified by being in third place in the Atlantic Division on the last day of the season.While There may be a play-in round, or nothing at all, the Leafs finished third, which is sort of ironic, given that despite all the consternation and turmoil, they’ll still start the playoffs in the same position they did last year in what was considered a successful regular season.Boston lead the league with 44 wins, while Detroit had just 17.The two best teams are both in the Atlantic Division, with Tampa having 43 wins (despite finishing two points behind the Blues in one less game).If you consider that the 12th place team finished only eight wins behind Boston, but didn’t dress their optimal lineup for a single game, had to fire their coach after a six game losing streak, didn’t get a single win from their back-up goalie for three months, and played nine games without both of their top two defenseman, then it is highly likely that all three of the NHL’s best teams play in the same division.To go through all that, and to be 28th in 5v5 goalie save percentage, and still finish 12th overall is a great accomplishment, even if no one wants to recognize it.The Flyers were the NHL’s best home team, while the Avalanche were the NHL’s best road team.Tampa, Washington and the Toronto Maple Leafs were the NHL’s three highest scoring teams.Boston, Dallas and Arizona were the three teams who allowed the least goals.Despite some Leafs fans taking the offense for granted while complaining insistently about their lack of defense, it should be noted that the Leafs finished just a single point behind Dallas and ten positions in the overall standings higher than Arizona.The NHL’s best puck-possession team was the Vegas Golden Knights, while the Toronto Maple Leafs were sixth, just behind Tampa.Colorado, Boston, Tampa and St.Louis had the highest PDOs in the NHL, while also finishing top four in the Standings. Teams Read the latest updates and news on every team in the NHL. (All stats The fact that the Leafs season wasn’t as successful as we hoped should be seen in this light because it strongly suggests that the Kyle Dubas has built a team that is every bit as good as the NHL’s two best teams.A new coach (check) a healthy roster (TBD) and some good goaltending (TBD) will help make this into a reality, but for now, there is ample evidence that the Toronto Maple Leafs GM is on the right track.Build your custom FanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis on Toronto Maple Leafs and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more.Your privacy is safe with us.
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NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. Community The Toronto Maple Leafs join the morning TTC commute on their route to Nathan Phillips Square for the club's outdoor 3 on 3 tournament. What it will take to get the Maple Leafs back in a playoff spot New, 40 comments The Leafs lost a lot before the break, so let’s have a look again at how much they have to win to fix this.