While the point pace is technically only four higher than last season, tracking for more points than 2023-24 when the team’s best player has played only 65% of the games — and maybe looked right in 10% of them — is a noteworthy achievement. For most of November, the Leafs were missing half of their forward group.
One of the reasons the Leafs have been able to survive those absences is the improved play on defense, led by the addition of Chris Tanev, and the improvement in net, where the gap between the goaltending they’ve received from Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll in the first half of this season is galaxies ahead of what Ilya Samsonov gave the team in the first half of last season.