Lupul, to Kessel, Top Shelf!!!!

If you are wondering, if there was 1 specific thing that I could point out to you, that is the biggest factor in the Leafs hot start of 4-1-1, I'd tell you Phil Kessel.  But in all honesty, I can't put it all on him.  He is going to share the credit with Joffrey Lupul.  So far, the two combine for 11 goals and 8 assists in 6 games this season.  They are a plus 12 together, which is a HUGE turnaround from last season where they were a -27.
 
Since Lupul was picked up by the Leafs in a trade with the Ducks on Feb 9th 2011, Kessel has become much more consistent in his scoring. 

With Joffrey Lupul, Kessel had these stats:

34 games played
19g  - .56 goals per game
21a - .62 assists per game
90pts - 1.18 points per game

 And without Joffrey Lupul:

124 games played
49g - .4 goals per game
41a - .33 assists per game
90pts - .73 points per game

As you can see from these stats, Kessel has had significant production increase since Lupul has come arrived.   The ironic part of it all, was Lupul was supposed to just come over as a large contract pick up, not as a top line player, but this trade made Burke look good, because not only did he get someone who seems to have decent chemistry with Kessel, he also got defenceman Jake Gardiner.  Gardiner is considered the Leafs top defensive prospect, and cracked the roster this training camp, but has yet to make any significant contributions to the team so far and is a +1 through 4 games so far this season.

Kessel is on pace for 95 goals and 68 assists, good for 163 points on the season.  Now, looking at these numbers, its a bit unrealistic that Kessel will break the record for most goals in a season (92, set by Wayne Gretzky in 81-82) but maybe this is the year that Kessel can get out of the 30 goal range and push up into that 40 goal range.  Either way, going by the stats, there should be an improvement in Kessel's point production.  Here's hoping his success keeps up.