The Toronto Maple Leafs continued the second half of the season following the conclusion of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. With back-to-back wins coming out of the break, the Maple Leafs looked ahead to week 21 of their season with three games on their schedule. Hoping to continue their success with games against the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, the team came out victorious after three more consecutive wins.

Amidst the uncertainty surrounding the contract situation for Mitch Marner, who is a pending UFA at the end of the season, the 27-year-old winger continues to have arguably his best season as he put together another week of impressive showings. Entering week 21, Marner was among the league leaders in assists and points, and after another week of doing the same old, same old, he has inched closer up the leaderboards, thanks to a four-point week.

He began the week with a two-goal performance against the Bruins inside TD Garden, where he helped set up the game-winning goal for Team Canada less than a week before. He added two more assists in the final two games against the Rangers and Penguins to reach the 75-point mark. With his lone assist yesterday afternoon, Marner (714 points) surpassed George Armstrong (713 points) for fifth place on the franchise’s all-time points list. He now trails only Borje Salming (768), Dave Keon (858), Darryl Sittler (916) and Mats Sundin (987) on that list.

There are 15 games in March for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and with the top of the Atlantic division as close as ever and with every point meaning so much, both Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll are going to have to come up big for this team if they want to win the Atlantic division for the first time. With that said, Stolarz started two of the three games last week. The 31-year-old netminder got the first two games against the Bruins and Rangers, and he did what he has been doing all season long, by stopping pucks and giving his team a chance to win. His start in Boston may not have been perfect, but after going down 3-0, he shut the door long enough for his team to rally back and ultimately win in overtime, 5-4.

The game against the Rangers was vintage Stolarz, and Leaf fans have seen that more than once this season. Toronto jumped out to an early 1-0 lead but were soon playing on their heels, as the Rangers jumped all over the Maple Leafs and didn’t stop. They threw a ton of pucks on target, but Stolarz was up to the task, turning aside 33 of the 35 shots he faced. With two more wins secured, the New Jersey native improved his season record to 13-5-2 with a 2.21 GAA and a league-leading .927 SV% (with a minimum of 21 games played).

Leading up to the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, Morgan Rielly had recorded a point in four straight games, including a goal against his hometown team, the Vancouver Canucks. As he and his team returned to action, his point streak snapped in their back-to-back, but thanks to a big night against the Bruins to open week 21, a brand new point streak began for the veteran blue liner.

It is evident this season hasn’t gone as smoothly as some others for Morgan Rielly, and he’d be one of the first to tell you that. However, with four points in his last six games heading into Boston, the 30-year-old recorded his first 4-point night since December 7th, 2021 and continued that into their next two games, recording an assist against the Rangers and Penguins for a 6-point week.

Suddenly, with six points in his last three games and ten points in his last nine, Rielly is up to 32 points (seven goals and 25 assists) and is on pace for 44 points, which would be his sixth 40-point season and fourth consecutive. Also, amidst the impressive week offensively for Rielly, he recorded his 500th career point in Boston and became the third defender in franchise history to reach that mark, joining Borje Salming (768) and Tomas Kaberle (520).