The Toronto Maple Leafs enter the NHL Christmas Shutdown in second place in the Atlantic.
Second place ain’t half bad, however, when it’s a technicality. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning share the exact same 20-10 record, but the Lightning lost an extra two games in OT and thus have the Loser Point Advantage.
The Panthers have fallen off in recent times – 4-5-1 in their last ten – and those of us who laughed when everyone picked them to be better than the Leafs in the summer are happy to have been proven correct.