While all teams play 82 games every year, not all regular seasons are created equal, as the Maple Leafs were unjustly given a more difficult schedule than most.

Last night, on the second half of a back-to-back coming out of the Christmas break, the Maple Leafs were handed a tough loss on home ice to the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

While back-to-back sets are wholly expected in the NHL schedule, there’s always a few teams that have an abnormally large amount of them compared to a team or two that seemingly find a way to escape the wrath of the league.

The Toronto Maple Leafs pace the NHL with 16 sets of back-to-backs this season with the Washington Capitals coming in at a very low number of 8. The league average was around 12.5, which shows the high-end and the low-end of that spectrum after the two teams faced off again last night.

Interestingly enough, all 3 times the Maple Leafs have faced off against the Capitals this season, Toronto was in a back-to-back scenario. If that’s not setting one team up for success, I don’t know what is.

The tired legs were noticeable last night after the Capitals came through with a 5-2 victory and now own a 2-0-1 record against the Buds on the year.

If you dig a little further, the Leafs have already played through 9 back-to-back sets, which surpasses the total amount the Capitals would be undertaking all year.

Washington has already completed 6 back-to-backs, meaning they only have 2 more for the rest of the season, which includes none in the months of February and March.

While it might be the luck of the draw or perhaps their home arenas are scheduled for more concerts or shows that would force their hockey teams to a more compact schedule, it’s certainly an interesting statistic nonetheless.

Back-to-backs are always the dread of every team and if you can find any way to remain fresher or lighter through the doldrums of an NHL season, you’ll take whatever advantage you can get.

Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs aren’t going to be afforded that luxury with 7 more back-to-back sets coming their way from now to the end of the season, including 3 in March alone.

Other than Toronto, Carolina was scheduled for 16 as well and Montreal rounded out the top-3 with 15 back-to-backs.

On the other side, Washington was at the bottom with just 8 while three teams followed with 10 in Boston, St. Louis, and Vancouver.

Surely, there has to be a way to create a better balance. And surely, the Leafs winding up with the most back-to-backs is a coincidence, right?