Despite not their best hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs came out of the 4-Nations break winners of five in a row, putting them in a great spot as the Atlantic division leaders. Unfortunately, things have unravelled since that winning streak.

Following three straight tough losses to the Sharks, Golden Knights and Avalanche, the Maple Leafs now see themselves four points behind the division-leading Panthers with 19 games remaining.

It may be another down year for the two-time 60-goal man, Auston Matthews, but it has still been a productive one up to this point of the regular season despite missing 15 games due to injury. Following his first 60-goal campaign, Matthews battled a wrist injury the next season and scored ~just~ 40 goals. He bounced back massively, scoring 69 goals in 2023-24, but has battled injuries again this season, limiting him to just 23 goals in 48 games (39-goal pace over 82 games).

Although the goals haven’t been going into the net at the same rate they have for the past five seasons, Matthews’ playmaking abilities have been on full display this season, as the 27-year-old is averaging the highest assists per game average of his career (0.68). That continued into week 22, as Matthews recorded five points in three games, four of those being assists, helping improve his season totals to 56 points, with 23 goals and 33 assists in 48 games.

The Maple Leafs did make two pretty sizeable trade deadline additions to help bolster their roster for this season and beyond, but at the end of the day, it is up to Auston Matthews and the other three big guys up front to help lead the way with their offence.

If you thought the trade deadline was crazy, the bomb that Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman dropped on Saturday regarding the Carolina Hurricanes asking for Mitch Marner in a potential Mikko Rantanen deal might have broken the hockey world on deadline day.

Marner is in the middle of the best season of his career, and as a pending UFA looking to cash in big this offseason, the Markham, Ontario native continued his dominance last week despite Toronto dropping all three games on their schedule. He opened week 22 of the season by picking up an assist against the Sharks in their 3-2 shootout loss and followed that up by scoring his 19th goal of the season in a 5-2 loss to the Golden Knights.

Following the crazy Marner/Hurricanes report that Friedman dropped on Saturday, the 27-year-old entered Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado and scored two more goals – his 20th and 21st of the season – marking the fifth consecutive 20-goal season for the winger, seventh overall. With four more points to his name, Marner has inched closer to the 80-point mark on the season (79).

Heading into the 4-Nations break, John Tavares was on a roll, picking up points in six of the seven games leading into the tournament (two goals and five assists), and the veteran forward has not slowed down, picking up right where he left off ever since returning to action.

Tavares scored his 23rd goal of the season in that high-event win over the Penguins and continued to find the back of the net last week in their three games. It was a very underwhelming loss to the Sharks after blowing a 2-0 third-period lead, but Tavares picked up two more points (goal and assist), thus beginning his tenth different point streak of the season. With their new trade deadline additions in the lineup against the Avalanche on Saturday night, the 34-year-old recorded his fifth multi-goal game of the season (25th and 26th goal) in their 7-4 loss, which marked the 13th time Tavares has reached the 25-goal mark in a season.