from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- The shortened NHL schedule is robbing Maple Leafs fans and their two best players of possible team records. The Leafs are playing at 113-point pace. The most points they’ve ever had in any season is 105. Auston Matthews leads the NHL and is scoring at 62-goal pace. No Leaf has ever had more than 54 goals in a season. Mitch Marner is scoring at 101-point pace. No Leafs winger has ever been over 100 points. No individual records or team records will obviously be broken in a 56-game schedule. It makes you wonder what if — and what might have been possible over 82 games.

- Connor McDavid, meanwhile, is scoring at a pace that hasn’t been seen in 25 years. And just six years into his career, he’s still getting better. McDavid trails only Gretzky, Lemieux, Bossy and Bobby Orr in career points per game. McDavid is at 1.386 points per game, his agent Orr is at 1.393 a game. He should pass him soon. This season, McDavid is scoring at 1.75 point a game.

- Funny, nobody needed graphs, charts and computer printouts to determine how great Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau or Jari Kurri were defensively. Same with Patrice Bergeron today. All you have to is watch the games. What a concept.

- If you’re an NHL player and you’ve lived the entire season with strict COVID-19 restrictions, why would you ever go to Latvia for the world hockey championships? Wouldn’t you just say no.

- Both ESPN and Turner have to fill out their hockey broadcasting rosters now that they’re doing NHL games next season. In no particular order, I would reach out to Ray Ferraro, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire, Elliotte Friedman, Kevin Bieksa, Mike Johnson, Pierre LeBrun, Kevin Weekes, Kathryn Tappen, Kenny Albert, Mike Johnson, Steve Levy, Michael Farber, Anson Carter, AJ Mleczko, John Forslund, and yeah, I would make a call to Doc Emrick to see if he wanted to come out of retirement. And then I’d go from there and complete the staffs. And doesn’t Turner have to find a place for Charles Barkley, who loves the Stanley Cup playoffs, if only on occasion? And I’m probably in the minority on this, but for panel purposes, I’d bring back Mike Milbury. Every good panel needs a contrarian.

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