You're entire narrative since I originally posted about the Leafs' upcoming road trip was that the North is weak, not difficult at all, and every game in the East is a grind and there are no easy games in the East I simply pointed out, in a sarcastic way, that your position is nonsense. If you want to discount the Leafs' success so far this season, that's fine, but don't claim the East is so much more powerful when about half the points the Islanders have so far this season are from games won over the Sabres, the Devils, and the Rangers, three teams that wouldn't make the playoffs in any of the four divisions. So, of the eight teams in the East, three are givens as being unlikely to make the playoffs, leaving five teams to fight for four playoff spots. That's no different or more difficult than any other division.
In the old Atlantic division, the Leafs pretty much always played the Bruins even in the regular season and in the playoffs, the Leafs lost three times in seven game series, twice having a 3-2 lead in the series before losing the last two games - not a great record, but hardly a record that would indicate great superiority by the Bruins. Likewise, the one time the Leafs played the Capitals in the playoffs was when their young stars were new to the league/playoffs and they took the Capitals to six games - again, hardly indicative of great superiority over the Leafs.
I can't remember the last time the Leafs played the Islanders in the playoffs - neither team has done much of anything for over 30 years, the Leafs even longer. What might be interesting, from the Leafs' perspective, is what happens to whatever team wins the North division and whether or not they get to play any third round games at home, considering the border issues. In all likelihood, the Leafs will have to relocate either to an NHL bubble in the US or to a new city in the US, likely a city of a US team out of the playoffs, and that will be a distinct disadvantage to the Leafs unless all of the four division winners have to relocate to a bubble in a neutral city.