Toronto Maple Leafs: Only the Bruins Stand in the Way

What a difference...eleven days makes?

Eleven days ago, I wouldn't have sat down and cheered for the Montreal Canadiens to pull of a shorthanded goal with a minute left in a game. Nor would I have sat on the edge of my seat as they entered a shootout.

Eleven days ago I wouldn't have argued, in public, that the Toronto Maple Leafs still had a shot, that they could indeed make the playoffs, that someone has to believe.

Eleven days ago is a long time.

For those of you keeping score at home, eleven days ago the Leafs began their home-and-home series with the Philadelphia Flyers. 

They came in eight points back—took three of-a-possible four points—and left five points behind the Flyers in the race for the playoffs.

Fast-forward eleven days, and the Leafs are now behind the Flyers by four points. Not much of a difference right?

But they're getting a little inadvertent help from another Original Six team. 

The Boston Bruins have gone on a mini-slide lately (2-4-4 in their last 10) including a 3-2 shootout-loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night.

That sequence of events puts them into a tie with the Flyers for eighth spot in the East with 84 points.

Talk about luck eh?

I mean the Toronto Maple Leafs, out of the playoffs by four points, have a chance to hop over the Bruins with two wins this week and claim that eighth spot heading into a weekend matchup with the East-leading Canadiens.

I mean they've come this far, what's to say they won't just go and win those two games and leap-frog Boston into the playoffs, especially when Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov—their two leading scorers—are preparing to come back to the lineup?

And at this rate, they would face the Canadiens in the first round—a playoff match-up that could probably rip the Eastern part of Canada apart.

The weird thing? Even the Leafs' progression in recent history seems to indicate that this could be the year they go back to the playoffs:

In 2005/06 they came up short, being ousted from playoff contention after the 80th game.

In 2006/07 the Leafs did all they could to get to the playoffs, as they claimed the eighth spot in the East on the last day of the season—only to have it devilishly stolen by the New York Islanders in New Jersey the next day.

So does that mean that in 2007/08 the Leafs break the streak of non-playoff seasons and scrape their way in?

I don't know. But it should be one hell of a week.