Sure looks like these fast and furious Maple Leafs are having a blast.

And when was the last time we could say that about this hockey club?

Winning a few games always helps lighten the mood. But this goes beyond that. This is about a team that has a clear identity and direction and, for now, spirit.

It’s about pace and raising the compete level, and in Toronto it’s being done with a group of young players who have all arrived at the same moment to begin this journey together.

We’re 17 games in, and so far we have Connor Brown with a four-point night, Auston Matthews with a four-goal game and William Nylander named NHL rookie of the month for October.

Then there’s this Mitch Marner kid. My, my, my. Just like the Leafs could have gone for a big body like Nick Ritchie but instead took Nylander for his skill set, so too could they have selected big American defenceman Noah Hanifin instead of GTA born and raised Marner in the 2015 NHL draft. There were some in the organization who thought they should have.

Now, however, few would make that recommendation, and it’s not because Hanifin is a bad player. Quite the contrary. He’s a rock-solid 19-year-old in his second season on Carolina’s defence, playing upwards of 18 minutes a night.

But the belief, at least in Mark Hunter’s corner, was that while Hanifin might be very good, Marner could be unique. Special.

“He’s Patrick Kane,” said one NHL general manager at the draft.

Right now, he’s looking like the most special member of this collection with those five multi-point games and that dipsy-doodle breakaway goal Thursday night. We haven’t yet mentioned Nikita Zaitsev, third among NHL rookie defencemen behind Boston’s Brandon Carlo and Zach Werenski of the Blue Jackets in average minutes played, or workaholic Zach Hyman.

Indeed, it was the reaction to Hyman’s first goal of the season last Friday night against Philadelphia that told you something important about this group. It took hustle and effort to get the puck past Steve Mason, but it was the look of pure joy on the face of Matthews in the post-goal celebration that told you something about the general feeling going through this roster at the moment.

Seems they are all taking pleasure out of watching each other succeed.

At this point, we probably have to reassess what this team is capable of this season. With the excellent Mike Babcock calling the plays and more stability in management than there’s been for years, these kids are exceeding all expectations so far.

At the beginning of October, it sure looked as if they were going to take another serious run at 30th place, which really caused no alarms to sound.

Another top-five pick? Sure (sigh), sounds good. Keep filling the cupboard.

There were just so few things settled going into the season. Matthews seemed likely to be effective at the very least. Morgan Rielly seemed poised to take a major step forward. Free-agent Matt Martin was likely to bang a lot of bodies.

But it was totally unclear as to how Marner, Nylander, Brown and Zaitsev would fare, whether Nazem Kadri would respond positively to his new contract, whether James van Riemsdyk would bounce back from an injury-scarred 2015-16 season and if Freddie Andersen could be a reliable No. 1 goalie.

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Strangely, the answers to those questions have all been positive so far. Who knew such things could happen in Toronto?

So you have a team that will ride into Montreal on Saturday night with a better record now than the quick-out-of-the-gate Edmonton Oilers to take another shot at the NHL’s best team after nearly leaving with a victory three weeks ago.

Moreover, the Habs will have to travel from Raleigh after playing the Hurricanes Friday night while the Leafs rest. Opportunity knocks.

Brown’s superb effort against Florida on Thursday night, meanwhile, highlighted an element of this rebuild that must flourish over time for all of this to lead anywhere, and that’s success with lower draft picks. While choices had to be made at the time, selecting Matthews, Marner, Rielly and Nylander in the top 10 of their draft years was the relatively easy part.

But can the Leafs cash in with some of their later picks like Chicago did with Niklas Hjalmarsson, or Pittsburgh with Bryan Rust or the Kings with Alec Martinez? Brown, 156th overall in 2012, is a good sign, although he was taken, it should be noted, by a previous management team. Brian Burke’s, actually.

Interesting Leaf prospects to watch from the last two drafts include defencemen Andrew Nielsen and Travis Dermott, both with the Marlies, goalie Joseph Woll of Boston College and Adam Brooks, drafted as a late-blooming 20-year-old with the 92nd pick last summer. In Kitchener, shifty Jeremy Bracco (61st, ’15) has played 17 games and has points in every one of them, 35 overall.

This is where the Leafs need to really do well. A decade ago, they drafted Jiri Tlusty in the first round, then followed up with Nikolai Kulemin, James Reimer, Korbinian Holzer, Viktor Stalberg and Leo Komarov. That’s terrific work. But in four drafts from 2008-2011, they got basically nothing after the first round, and that helped create the talent shortages of recent seasons.

Based on the returns so far, and much could change, it appears the Leafs won’t be one of the NHL’s worst teams for the first time in a while. So there may not be another top-10 pick on the way and lower selections will matter even more.

That’s probably the most you should take from this 17-game start.

The darkness, it would seem, has receded.

Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.

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