It is a near certainty that the Toronto Maple Leafs will make the playoffs.(The Athletics Dom Luszczyszyn has them at 97.4% to make it).
Even before the season, most hockey fans around the league assumed that it would be Toronto, Tampa, and Boston as the three Atlantic seeds. However, people much figured that Tampa would again be the top seed, leaving Toronto facing the Bruins for the third straight post-season. Nobody expected how the first half of the season would go for any of the teams involved.
For the first half of the season (besides the last 10 or so games), the Tampa Bay Lightning were on somewhat of a shocking spiral.