The Maple Leafs lead the NHL with 11 overtime sessions this season. Teams that lead in that category usually end up missing the playoffs.

There's been a lot of talk about regulation wins lately and their significance in comparison to overtime or shootout victories.

The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the NHL in overtime sessions this season through games played on Sunday. Out of their 12 wins this season, only five have come in regulation time. 

The debate: Does it matter how you win? 

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"It's a hard league, man, two points is two points," Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe said last week when asked about his team's inability to close out games.

The NHL tried to make regulation wins matter more ahead of the 2019-20 season when they made it the first tiebreaker for playoff spots (previously regulation and overtime wins). 

The Maple Leafs entered games played through Sunday with a 12-6-4 record. Only five of their wins have come in regulation time. It turns out the lack of regulation wins is a problem solely based on some preliminary data. 

We decided to backtest data back to 2005-06 when the NHL abolished ties to see how teams that lead the league that season in extra-session games faired. And, well, it's not good.

More often than not, teams who led the NHL in overtime sessions went on to miss the NHL postseason. Six teams made it to the first round and just two who made it to round 2.

In the very first year of no ties, the Edmonton Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Final before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes. 

Since the NHL adopted 3-on-3 overtime ahead of the 2015-16 NHL season, no club has ever gotten past the first round while leading the NHL in the amount of overtime sessions played.

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The Detroit Red Wings hold the record of 29 extra-session games in an 82-game season in 2016-17. They missed the playoffs, too.

Of course, any team can buck this trend by turning things on in the post-season if everything goes right. But the Maple Leafs are on the bubble right now in a more competitive Atlantic Division and have been unable to separate themselves from their opponents with all of these extra sessions.

The number of overtime games played and where they sit in the standings is a true reflection of the team's 5-on-5 play. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the team is 20th of 32 teams in expected goals at 5-on-5 through games played on Sunday. That's a far cry from top-third status that they used to enjoy in previous seasons.

If anything, the extra sessions have helped the Leafs stay in the hunt this late in the season, but it's clear that the team needs to be better at closing out games.

This doesn't even take into account the additional stress that top players are enduring while playing more 3-on-3 than another team.

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