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Boston beat the Leafs handily on Tuesday night, walking away with a 6-2 victory after playing the Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. With the win, Boston moves to 86 points and spreads the gap between the Leafs and the final playoff spot. Now, with only five games remaining, things are looking bad for Toronto.

Boston has six games left, giving them a game in hand. If Boston was to win only one of their next six games, moving to 88 points, the Leafs would have to win all five of their remaining games to move ahead of the Bruins. The Bruins are also ahead of the Leafs in the season series by one. This means that if Boston beats Toronto in their next match up, even if the Leafs then won their following four games and Boston won none, the tie at 88 points would still see the Buds be mathematically eliminated.

So now the question is this, with things looking so grim for the Leafs, all but out, hanging on by a finger nail, will Maurice continue to ride Toskala, or will we see our favourite backup take the ice for the first time in what seems like the entire season?

Based on the fact that the Leafs seem to really want this last playoff spot despite the fact they’d likely be murdered in the playoffs, my guess is that Maurice will play Toskala in the next game against Boston, hoping to God that the Leafs can pull it out and then somehow sneak into 8th by magic or miracle or whatever.

At this point, draft-wise, the damage is more or less done. The Leafs are sitting at 23rd in the league and are 10 and 12 points ahead of the bottom three teams. Each of those three teams would have to win everyone of their remaining games with the Leafs winning none just to meet Toronto at 80 points. The Leafs are more or less mathematically eliminated from finishing in the bottom three spots, and even the fourth and fifth last spots are looking out of reach.

In true Leafs style, they’ve found themselves at a point that sees them all but eliminated from the playoffs at the same time as being all but eliminated from a top 5 draft spot. They’re now in a position where they have a choice. One option is to keep living the pipe dream and keep with the playoff race against Washington and Buffalo. The other option is to accept the inevitable and enter the race to suck the worst against teams like Columbus, the Islanders and St. Louis.

The best thing that could happen to this team would be for Boston to win the next game and take the decision away. We need to gain as much drafting ground as we can, but at this point, no matter which direction you’re hoping the team will go, it’s probably too little, too late.  Leave it to the Leafs to find away to lose out on both ends of the spectrum.

Stumble it!