The Maple Leafs have been winning a lot of games to start the year. Their division is basically an omnishambles, with the Maple Leafs having an nine point cushion in the playoff race. Despite this, there are some ominous undercurrents. Toronto was a fairly average possession team last year. This year, they’re a little bit worse than that.



Through Wednesday, the Maple Leafs sat 18th in the NHL in Corsi% at 49.4 per cent. This is down about a point from last year.



If we look at it through the lens of line/pair combinations, a few things start to pop out.



Yeesh, that second pair. Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev are continuing to have a rough year. Outside of their time with the Nazem Kadri led second line (for which there’s an excuse), the Morgan Rielly/Ron Hainsey pairing has been pretty solid.



From a goals perspective, the Maple Leafs have actually been pretty good at 5-on-5. The concern, of course, is that the possession catches up with...