The time of the Maple Leafs is now. Toronto is arguably the hottest team in the Eastern Conference, and with some aggressive offensive play from youngster Phil Kessel and sorely missed quality goaltending from primary net-minder Vesa Toskala, the Leafs are quickly turning an abysmal 1-7-5 start into something salvageable by New Years, and beyond that, who knows? The upcoming problem for the Leafs though – as if they didn’t have enough – is that their January schedule looks about as rough as their October ended up being.

The Leafs are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games, behind only New Jersey and Buffalo’s 8-2-0, yet in that span, they’ve managed only to climb one spot in the standings. The Lightning, Leafs and Islanders are seeded 12th through 14th in the east, each with 31 points. Thanks to the NHL’s tie-breaking procedures, a Tampa Bay loss in Nashville on Tuesday night would lift both the Leafs and Islanders above the Lightning in the standings without playing a game, due to their having more wins in the same amount of games. The Rangers and their 31 points would continue to hold 11th place.

The most important parts of Toronto’s recent string of success is that they’re beating up on teams they should be beating, and they’re winning games in regulation time. By not giving up that additional point to their opposition, they’ve managed to slowly catch up to those ahead of them and are now amazingly just two points out of a playoff position. While it’s still early in the season, nobody would have thought a month ago that the Leafs would be anything near where they are now such a short time later.

The key to Toronto’s continued success is in their ability to sustain this high level of play. While no team is ever as good as they appear when things are going well, the Leafs are certainly proving that they’re not as bad as they looked at the start of the season. If Kessel and Toskala can continue leading the team, and others like Tomas Kaberle, Francois Beauchemin and Niklas Hagman can continue contributing positively, the Leafs will quickly prove that they’re a force in the east. But still, that’s a lot to ask of the Blue and White.