Tuesday night, the Arizona Coyotes clinched a top three pick in the draft, while the Oilers nestled into the fourth-worst spot on the NHL standings page. The Carolina Hurricanes also lost in regulation to the Detroit Red Wings, which kept them just two points up on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
On a Wednesday night with a light schedule, the Maple Leafs were in the spotlight. A win would move them into a tie in points with Carolina and move them ahead of the Canes via ROW tiebreaker. Then again, the Leafs were on the road where they’ve been especially horrible so we all probably saw this result coming.
Here’s tonight’s McDavid watch.
Toronto Maple Leafs: James Reimer was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on 20 shots and even though the Leafs held the shot advantage they were blown away 5-0 by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
We all know how historically awful this Toronto team has been this season. Ever since the dismissal of Randy Carlyle, the team’s scoring dried up and they withered out of the playoff picture. Some say the silver lining is that the Leafs played a better “style” of hockey under Horachek that would lead the tea to more success in the long run, but the cold hard truth is that this team was outclassed nearly every night – especially on the road.
Even worse than that horrific stat is this one: In 25 road games since the calendar flipped to 2015, Toronto has earned just one win. And that came against a Florida Panthers team that had both of its goalies injured in the game.
As a result of this spiral, Toronto will now most likely pick fourth or fifth in June’s draft. Carolina sits two points ahead of Toronto in the standings with two games left, while the Leafs nightmare season comes to a conclusion Saturday against Montreal.
If Toronto finishes fourth-last, where it sure looks like they’ll end up, they’d head into the draft lottery with a 9.5 per cent chance of winning it and taking Connor McDavid.
Columbus Blue Jackets: By beating Toronto, the Blue Jackets moved one point ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers in the overall standings. Columbus now sits eighth-last, a slot that would give them a six percent chance of winning the lottery and the right to pick McDavid.
Columbus’ story has been much different than Toronto’s though. After starting the season terribly and being frustrated with the high number of man-games lost to injury they’ve had to deal with, Columbus actually rebounded. In their past 15 games, Columbus has 13 wins. In fact, in the 45 games Columbus has played in 2015, they’ve won 24 of them.
The Blue Jackets finish the season at home to Buffalo on Friday and on the road against the struggling Islanders on Saturday.
