The Edmonton Oilers had the opportunity to add a little intrigue to the NHL North Division race with a three-game series against a Toronto Maple Leafs.

It hasn’t happened.

The Maple Leafs (EVEN) recorded their second shutout win in a row over the Oilers with a 3-0 victory on Monday night.

Toronto has outscored Edmonton a combined 7-0 in back-to-back wins without its best player available.

The Maple Leafs are now eight points clear of Edmonton for the best record in the division with a game in hand.

The fact that Toronto has been able to increase its division lead without Auston Matthews is an absolute statement.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Tuesday Mar. 2, 2021.

Leafs Extend Division Lead

As of this morning, the Maple Leafs are a -350 favourite to win the North Division.

Toronto, which opened the year as the consensus favourite to finish atop the North at +120 odds, improved to 17-4-2 with back-to-back wins over the Oilers.

Any talk about a race for first place has been put on pause. It’s now clearly the Maple Leafs division to lose.

Zach Hyman, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly each found the back of the net for Toronto in the first period of Monday night’s 3-0 win.

Scoring seven goals in two games without their best player available is pretty impressive.

The fact that the Maple Leafs figured out a way to blank Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and company in back-to-back games with their backup and third- string goalies between the pipes is even more impressive.

Jack Campbell made 30 saves in Saturday night’s win.

Michael Hutchinson stopped all 31 shots he faced last night for his sixth career shutout.

Think about this for a second: Matthews has missed consecutive games and his chances to win the Hart have actually improved.

Toronto is now 4-1-1 against the Oilers this season.

The Maple Leafs will wrap up their three games series on Wednesday night in Edmonton with a chance to increase their division lead to double-digits with a game in hand.

Senators Deal Flames Another Blow

Drake Batherson scored twice as the Ottawa Senators (+140) beat the Calgary Flames 5-1.

Batherson extended his scoring streak to six in a row to match the franchise record.

Tim Stutzle registered a pair of assists. Matt Murray made 27 saves.

The Senators have now won four of their past five and seven of their last nine overall.

Meanwhile, a Calgary team that was absolutely desperate for points heading into this four-game series with Ottawa has dropped two of its first three, with the finale set for Thursday night.

The Flames are now 3-6-1 dating back to February 13.

Canucks Halt Two Streaks With One Win

The Winnipeg Jets had won four straight heading into this week. The Vancouver Canucks had lost four in a row.

The Canucks (+115) snapped both of those streaks with a 4-0 win over Winnipeg on Monday night.

Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Nils Hoglander and Nate Schmidt all scored for Vancouver.

Thatcher Demko stopped all 26 shots he faced.

Now comes the hard part for the Canucks, which is putting together consecutive wins.

Vancouver won four straight, including three against the Senators, between Jan. 25 and Jan. 30.

The Canucks haven’t won back-to-back games at any other point this season.

Vancouver and Winnipeg are set to get right back at it tonight. Viewers in the Jets region can watch that game on TSN3.