The Mr. Softee ice-cream truck served up some nuts in that vanilla swirl.

Which is to say the Maple Leafs put a little cookie crunch in their mush, some pop-crackle to snap a five-game losing skid.

(We may eventually grow weary of general manager Brad Treliving capturing the essence of this team with his descriptor as too-humdrum vanilla, but not yet.)

Sure, they’re still scuttling along the seabed of the Atlantic Division like spider crabs. And maybe they didn’t have to look very far down when measuring themselves against the woebegone St. Louis Blues: 0.474 points percentage versus 0.421 at puck drop Tuesday evening. The Leafs sitting 28th overall, the Blues 30th. Pretty equally crappy.

But by golly the Leafs won this title bout between NHL desperados, 3-2 in overtime on Pride Ni

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