February ends...

...and the Toronto Maple Leafs actually had a successful month this time around.  They are only a handful of points out of potentially making the playoffs this season in the Eastern Conference of the NHL (so are a number of teams as well).

But since the season started, we have been tracking the Leafs performance during the last three games of each month.  Although they lost 2 and won only 1, the 2 losses were in either during overtime or a shootout so they managed to gain 1 point in those two losses...4 points out of a possible 6 in those three games.  This was their most successful month end record this season!

So here are the results of the last 3 games the Leafs played in February.  Let hope the last 3 games of March are all winners and we stop joking about the Leafs making the playoffs, but they actually do!

Thursday February 24: Win-5-4 over Montreal in Montreal
Saturday February 26: Loss-6-5 to Pittsburgh at home (Shootout Loss)
Sunday February 27: Loss-3-2 to Atlanta in Atlanta (Overtime Loss)

The End of the Month hasn't been kind to the Toronto Maple Leafs

With the NHL All Star Game happening this upcoming Sunday (January 30), tonight (January 25), in Tampa,  is the last game of the month of January for the Toronto Maple Leafs!

Informally, I have been tracking the Leafs' results for the last three games of each month of this 2010/2011 season...it does not look good for Leafs' fans...including this month; they have not had a winning record in the last 3 games of any month this year:

October:
Win against Florida, Shutout losses to both Boston and the New York Rangers

November:
Losses against Ottawa, Buffalo & the Tampa Bay Lightning

December:
Win vs. New Jersey Devils; Losses against Carolina & Columbus Blue Jackets

January:
Losses to Washington & Carolina; awaiting results of tonight's game vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

As I noted earlier, this is very informal, but does clearly show the pattern the Leafs have put together in terms of continuing to string along a lot of losses and not enough wins; a similar pattern found over the previous 5 seasons as well!

Along with the posting "Fun With Numbers" from back on January 20, many of you sports stats fanatics can have a lot of fun coming up with some rationale behind why the Leafs continue to perform poorly year after year despite being the most financially sound and successful franchise in the NHL. 

And as fans, we continue to come back to the games even though we know the results over 2/3 of the time...especially at the end of the month!

Update-January 25-10:10PM Eastern
January has now become another month where the Leafs have gone 0-3 in the last three games of the month...just lost to Tampa Bay, 2-0!