March hasn’t been that kind to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who held a record of 2-4-1 entering last week’s slate of games. They opened the month with a crazy win over the Penguins, only to follow it with three straight losses. They rebounded with another crazy win over Utah but dropped their next two to division rivals. So, it is safe to say last week’s four-game schedule was crucial to Toronto, as they looked to stay in contention for first place in the division.

Consistently finding his way on the scoresheet has been a thing for William Nylander this season. Whether he’s playing his best hockey or not, the 28-year-old will find a way to find the back of the net or pick up an assist that impresses the crowd. Nylander has only gone 3+ games without recording a point twice this season and recently recorded a nine-game point streak.

Nylander’s point streak ended early last week against the Colorado Avalanche, but quickly found the scoresheet twice with two assists in their win over the New York Rangers last Thursday. A great secondary assist while taking a hit to make a play sprung John Tavares and Jake McCabe up the ice that led to an opening goal and followed that up with a primary assist on Matthew Knies’ 25th goal of the season, which ended up being the game-winner.

With five more points last week, the Calgary, Alberta native is up to 73 points in 70 games (38 goals and 35 assists). His 38 goals remain the second most in the NHL, 11 behind Leon Draisaitl’s league-leading 49. With 12 games to go in the season, Nylander is three goals away from setting a new career high in that department (41).

The ageless wonder: John Tavares. What a season it has been for the 16-year NHL veteran, who just recorded his seventh 30-goal season last week after another productive week on the scoresheet. Last year was a down year in the goal department for Tavares, who scored just 29 goals in 80 games following a 36-goal campaign the year prior in 80 games.

The production from the 34-year-old has been very welcoming, especially with the down year from Auston Matthews goal-scoring-wise. Tavares’ 30 goals rank second on the Maple Leafs behind William Nylander’s 38, and his 61 points rank fourth, only behind the big three, who are, yet again, leading the way in the counting stats.

Tavares began the month with four goals in his first four games but ran into a mini-slump, scoring just one in his next five games, including two last week. He ended that slump fast in their meeting against the Rangers, scoring two goals and adding an assist in their 4-3 win, followed by another tally against the Predators, which got the scoring started.

Although scoring hasn’t been as easy this season for Auston Matthews, he’s still producing at a pretty solid rate despite missing 15 games due to injury. He entered last week with 24 goals in 51 games, a goals-per-game average of 0.47, the lowest of his career. Fortunately, he found the back of the net three times last week to go along with three more assists, improving his goals-per-game average to 0.49 and goal total to 27.

Despite the goals not coming as frequently as everybody is used to, Matthews’ playmaking ability has been a treat to watch this season after another week showcasing that side of his game. With three more assists coming last week, two in their frustrating loss to the Predators, Matthews is up to 36 assists on the season in just 55 games – an assist-per-game average of 0.65, the highest of his career.

Following an excellent six-point week from the Maple Leafs captain, helping lead his team to a 3-1-0 record to keep pace with the Panthers, Matthews has now recorded 25 points (19 games) since February 1st. Nathan MacKinnon is the only player with more points than Matthews during that span (26 points in 18 games).