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Toronto Maple Leafs’ Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak, and James van Riemsdyk look on during a break in play against the St. Louis Blues during the second period of their NHL hockey game in Toronto, Tuesday March 25, 2014.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail

As comebacks go, it was pretty impressive.

Down 3-1 with 10 minutes left against the Ottawa Senators, who were desperately in need of points to support their unlikely playoff bid, the Toronto Maple Leafs rattled off three unanswered goals to win in overtime on Saturday night.

All of the Maple Leaf markers in the 4-3 win were scored by their first line, with Tyler Bozak picking up three goals and an assist, and Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk adding three helpers apiece.

It was a dominant showing for what has been, in recent years, one of the NHL's most dangerous lines (at both ends of the ice). They were flying – a fast, unpredictable trio that were hard to contain and fun to watch.

But where had they been the past three months?

"When you get a few bounces, then you start to get a little more confidence," van Riemsdyk explained. "Then the game feels a lot easier out there … For us to get a win, it's definitely exciting as it's been a while."

"Obviously, it's too late in the season to really get too excited about it," Bozak added. "But with the way things have gone, it's nice to be on the other side of it."

Nothing has come easily for the line as the Leafs' season has unravelled. One of the NHL's top scorers the past three seasons, Kessel went into Saturday's game with only three points at even strength in 35 games under interim head coach Peter Horachek. Van Riemsdyk had five. Bozak, after a nearly point-a-game start to the season, had six.

All three ranked outside of the top 330 even-strength scorers league-wide in that nearly half-season stretch, despite ample ice time.

In one sense, the complete disappearance of the top offensive unit was a positive, as without the usual production from Kessel and his linemates, there was no chance the Leafs would win many games. And not winning games could translate into a good draft pick in June – Toronto is now all but guaranteed to select in the top five spots.

The implosion will also force necessary change to the core of what's long been a flawed roster.

So it won't be a lost season in that sense, the way so many others were.

But on the flip side, the key players who president Brendan Shanahan and his management team will look to move have all had such brutal finishes to the current season that it has to have hurt how they're valued around the league.

There have even been suggestions that they have quit amid the tailspin, something Horachek has insinuated at times.

The Leafs' struggles have hardly been limited to the top line. Heavily shopped at the trade deadline, captain Dion Phaneuf has six points in his past 24 games. Alternate captain Joffrey Lupul has no goals and only three assists in his past 23.

Defensively, their results have been ugly: Phaneuf's score-adjusted possession rating in that span is less than 44 per cent; Lupul's is 41 per cent, last among Leafs forwards.

Both will also be on the wrong side of 30 next season, and both have considerable term and dollars on their contracts. (Phaneuf has six years remaining at $7-million [U.S.] a season; Lupul has three remaining at $5.25-million per.)

Further complicating matters, Kessel, Bozak, Phaneuf and Lupul have no-trade clauses of varying severity.

The pressing questions are: How far has their trade value fallen during this slide? And if there isn't a decent return available on potential trades, as there was before the deadline, what then?

The Leafs have understandably shifted much of their focus to the draft, with executives Mark Hunter and Kyle Dubas doing a full-scale tour to assess junior and college talent across North America in recent weeks. But the organization also needs to turn existing assets into prospects and draft picks, something that would have been easier last summer.

Right now, other teams around the league aren't sure what they're getting, with so many Leafs ice cold.

That's why, with six games remaining and a good pick guaranteed, it wouldn't be the worst thing to have more nights like Saturday, with Toronto's top players returning to form and showing a glimmer of what they were.

Even if the points in the standings no longer matter.

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