The Toronto Maple Leafs have all but clinched home-ice advantage for their upcoming playoff series against what will almost certainly be the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs will play Tampa for the second year in a row.
The Lightning have gone to the Stanley Cup Final three seasons straight, winning twice. That is a pretty poor reward for being the 4th best team in the NHL (by points percentage, as of this writing).
It really illustrates how poorly the NHL’s playoff seeding is set-up when three of the best teams in the entire league are in the same division and one of them is guaranteed to be eliminated after the first round, though this is due to Tampa’s perceived abilities based on the last couple of years, and not their overall spot in the standings, which is lower than you might think.