A winning streak can give a team a lot of confidence and the Maple Leafs have plenty of it right now.



On Friday night, the Leafs hung on to defeat the lowly New Jersey Devils 4-2. The win was their sixth in their last seven games. Their only blemish in that span came by way of an overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.



The Leafs were supposed to be in the middle of a rebuild and in a lot of ways, they still are building. And sure, they still have their flaws.



Despite a 4-0 lead after one period, a game that looked like it was in the bag, suddenly appeared in doubt. A third period in which the Leafs didn’t record a single shot on goal and surrendered two late New Jersey goals that were 55 seconds apart had supporters of Toronto feeling like it was going to be one of those nights where they wouldn’t hang onto a lead.



“I would have liked us to have played the whole period in the offensive zone, shot the puck and ground,...