Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe drought is over.For the first time in 25 years, the Maple Leafs have won their division in a full season.With a 4-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night, the Leafs officially nailed down their first-ever Atlantic Division title (it’s been around since 2013) and their first division win in an 82-game season since the 1999-2000 season, when they were still playing in the now non-existent Northeast Division. (The Leafs also won the so-called Canadian division during the shortened 2020-21 season.)It’s a quality feat that makes for a slightly less burdensome path, potentially, to a long-awaited Stanley Cup and, of course, a reigniting of the Battle of Ontario. The Leafs will meet the Senators in a playoff series for the first time since 2004.Here’s how they took home the Atlantic crown:Good to great goaltendingThere was no bigger factor than this.The Leafs vaulted from 25th in the NHL in team save percentage last season to top five this season. That is an extraordinary jump forward.
Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll embrace after a game. (James Guillory / Imagn Images)Anthony Stolarz has led the charge, taking his first opportunity to play beyond the backup role and running with it. He hasn’t been a full-time starter exactly, but when he’s in the net he has been among the steadier goalies in the league – and by far the Leafs’ top option.He is 8-0-0 in his last eight starts with a .950 save percentage and three shutouts.Joseph Woll has put together a solid season as the other half of the Leafs’ tandem, particularly the stretch in December and January when Stolarz was out injured. Woll’s numbers don’t pop in that time – he had a save percentage of .902 – but he was playing just about every night for the Leafs (ranking among the league leaders in starts, in fact) and delivering a mostly solid string of performances.It’s easy to forget just how chaotic things were in the crease for the Leafs last season, what with Ilya Samsonov imploding mid-season and Woll missing an extended period with a high-ankle sprain.This season has been just the opposite: smooth and steady for the most part.An awesome power playMarc Savard deserves more credit than he’s gotten here.Savard, an assistant coach who runs the power play, eventually unlocked an approach that hasn’t just worked, it’s gotten more and more dangerous as the regular season unfolded. That approach, of course, had Matthew Knies joining Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander as the fifth forward on the No. 1 unit, ultimately in place of Morgan Rielly.It’s not just that Knies has scored there, hoovering up loose pucks around the net. His 6-foot-3, nearly 230-pound presence down by the blue paint has created more space for everyone else.Knies barely had any role on the power play as a rookie last season.
Matthew Knies has played a big role on the power play in his second year with the Leafs. (Kim Klement Neitzel / Imagn Images)The Leafs are generating around 13 goals per 60 minutes on the power play with Knies alongside the four star forwards. Without him? A comparatively paltry seven goals per 60.The only hiccup with the unit has been the occasional short-handed rush, and goal, against.Supreme goal-scoring seasons from Nylander and Tavares, plus Marner’s first 100-point seasonThe Leafs haven’t had Matthews scoring anywhere near as much as normal, which made Nylander and Tavares scoring even more than before so crucial.Nylander hit 40 goals for the third season in a row and kept on climbing from there.What’s so impressive and really so underrated about Nylander’s scoring is that he’s done it all without a high-end playmaker by his side. Of the 24 five-on-five goals he’s scored, only five were set up by Tavares, the most of any teammate.Nylander recently pulled in front of Wendel Clark with the ninth-most goals in franchise history.On a per-game basis, meanwhile, this has been the third-best scoring season of Tavares’ career, and second-best during a full season.2012-13: 0.582018-19: 0.572024-25: 0.52All this for a 34-year-old in his 16th NHL season.Marner was arguably the Leafs’ MVP. He had another strong all-around season and reached 100 points for the first time in the NHL.A leap from both Knies and McMannKnies flashed so much potential in his first season, as well as the postseason before that, that it wasn’t hard to see a leap like this coming. He has become a major contributor in all situations for the Leafs – first-line left wing, first-unit power-play, second-unit penalty kill.He has logged nearly five minutes more per game this season, around 18.5 on average.The Leafs haven’t had many players, if any, with Knies’ combination of power and scoring before. In fact, Knies is the only player in franchise history with both 29 goals and over 180 hits in a season.Bobby McMann’s ascendance was far less predictable. He was in and out of the lineup last season, frequently playing spare minutes on the fourth line, and was even a healthy scratch in Game 1 of this regular season. McMann demanded more opportunity in his play, bringing a similar speed and power element to Knies – if not quite as consistent or pronounced.His first 20-goal season came for a bargain, just $1.35 million on the cap from the shrewd two-year extension the Leafs signed him to last spring.An elite No. 1 pair and improved net-front defendingThe Leafs weren’t an elite defensive team during the regular season. But they did have one elite defensive unit: the No. 1 defence pairing of Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev.Even though they were buried in defensive zone faceoffs and chowed down almost exclusively on top lines, McCabe and Tanev still won their minutes together (actual and expected) and excelled, especially, in limiting high-danger chances.They were really the one pair head coach Craig Berube’s staff could count on all year, and arguably the top defensive pair the Leafs have sported in a long, long time. The one-time combo of Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl was pretty good at one point, but not this good.Tanev’s first season as a Leaf was everything Brad Treliving’s management could have hoped.A particular defensive focus for Berube was keeping things clean around the net. And indeed, with improved defensive personnel, the Leafs jumped from 20th in high-danger shot rate last season to right around the top 10 this season.(Top photo of Auston Matthews: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
