I'm obviously less convinced. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they're still riding on a exceptionally high shooting percentage, and that's due to normalize some. So, even if/when the top line gets things going again, at some point soon, the rest of the lineup's production is going to slow down - possibly significantly and almost certainly more than the increase from the top line. I'll admit that, for the most part, the other lines are playing better than their counterparts from last season, but, that's also a pretty low bar. The goaltending has also obviously been excellent recently, but, we've all seen how quickly that can change.
We've also seen this from the Leafs recently. They had a 9-1-1 stretch heading into the Olympic break last season, which also came after a some humbling losses, and involved the team scoring at an unsustainable rate and relying on exceptional goaltending more than they should be comfortable with. Obviously, they don't have a break to the extent of the Olympics on the horizon (though, how much that really played into things is very much debatable), but, there are still a number of alarming similarities and their possession rates are trending in the wrong direction. While I don't think this team will completely fall off the cliff like last season's did, I'd still caution against reading too much into their recent success. This coming road heavy stretch leading into the All Star Game should give us a real idea as to whether or not this team has really turned any corners.
