The Maple Leafs can enjoy their bye week knowing they’re in a place that not many people expected: a playoff spot. Well, kind of. Technically, they’re two points behind the Ottawa Senators for third in the Atlantic and are on the outside looking in, but they have four games in hand on the Boston Bruins, who are three points up. By points percentage, they’re in, but the league doesn’t sort that way, for some reason.



Regardless, their 18-13-8 record and 92.5-point pace is probably a shock to a lot of people who were expecting another year of pain. If they keep playing the way they have lately, they’ve got a real shot at the playoffs. My model thinks they’ve got a 65.9 per cent chance at the post-season, a pretty big increase since the last time we checked in.



But this is the Leafs we’re talking about and no lead is ever really safe. We’ve seen them choke leads on a nightly basis this season and we’ve seen them...