By Eric Smith
FOX Sports Ohio
Thursday, December 30th, 2010
Three guesses on who leads the Maple Leafs (13-18-4) in points this season.
Phil Kessel would be a nice guess, as he does lead the team with 14 goals, but try again.
Tomas Kaberle is an assist monster from the blue line and leads the team with 21 helpers, but you will have to guess again.
Kris Versteeg, who came over from the Stanley Cup winning Blackhawks, has 10 goals and 14 assists but he is not at the top.
It's actually a tie between Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur. Grabovski is a name that might slip your mind, but not out of the realm of possibility for leading this team but MacArthur leading is more than a little surprising.
Grabovski is red-hot for the Leafs right now, with eight goals in the last 10 games and a point in six straight games -- the longest scoring streak on the club this season. During the 10-game span he has collected 11 of his 27 total points.
The native of Potsdam, Germany led all Eastern Conference rookies in the 2008-09 season with 48 points and was able to rake up 35 points last season in only 59 games. So his ability to score has long been known and he would have been on the Blue Jackets (18-15-3) radar even without this scoring streak.
The player that would probably slip right under your nose without notice is MacArthur. His best season was last year, when he scored 35 points combined between Atlanta and Buffalo in 81 games. At his current pace, he would eclipse 60 points this year. The 2003 third-round draft selection of the Buffalo Sabres has played alongside Grabovski and the two have made a pretty decent 1-2 punch.
The Blue Jackets got a big shoot-out win against the Wild on Monday night. For Columbus to start stringing a win streak together, it will need to stick to these keys to victory.
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