Gameday: Maple Leafs take the bus to Winnipeg

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS AT WINNIPEG JETS*
8:00PM - TSN4, TSN3
Opponent site: Arctic Ice Hockey

It’s game two of a back to back, last night the Leafs lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Minnesota Wild after coming back from a 3-0 deficit. It was a rather exciting game, with some great goals and fisticuffs and so on.

Related

Leafs lose in shootout after three-goal comeback led by Jason Spezza

Now, after sitting on their rental bus for seven hours on their ride from Minneapolis, the Leafs are ready to ground the Jets*.

Them

The Jets* have been decidedly average this year, to my great amusement. They are 4-5-1 in their last ten games, but their last game on Friday night was an 8-4 win over the New Jersey Devils. They were also shutout by the Coyotes 1-0, and looking at their schedule they seem to only win when they score 4 or more goals, and if they don’t score four goals they lose the game. This will be to the Leafs benefit because Jack Campbell....played...last night.

Shit.

Also, tonight is Blake Wheelers 1000th NHL game. Congratulations!

Kyle Connor - Mark Schiefle - Blake Wheeler
Kyle Copp - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Nikolaj Ehlers
Paul Stastny - Adam Lowry - Kristian Vesalainen
Jansen Harkins - Dominic Toninato - Evgeny Svechnikov

Josh Morrissey - Nate Schmidt
Brenden Dillon - Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley - Dylan Demelo

Connor Hellebuyck
Eric Comrie

Former Maple Leafs draft pick (5th round, 2012) Dominic Toninato is centring the Jets* fourth line tonight.

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T25U25: #25 Dominic Toninato

The Jets* are floundering from the playoff team they were in the North Division, or the division made them look so much better than they actually were. To be fair everyone in the Central Division is mediocre, aside from the Wild. The Jets* are extremely good at home in their tiny little AHL arena, having an 8-3-1 record compared to a miserable 3-4-3 away record.

Us

The Maple Leafs are awesome, despite losing last night. There have been some moves lately, with Michael Hutchinson being “sent down” to the Marlies despite still being in Winnipeg with the Leafs. Kyle Clifford is back on the 23 man roster but is not playing tonight as far as I know right now.

It was a harrowing drive for the media and team. The NHL shouldn’t be putting teams in cities without airports.

Road tripping from St. Paul to Winnipeg is going about as well as I expected. Rest stop at the ‘ Loaf N’ Jug’ pic.twitter.com/dLagko5xIS

— David Alter (@dalter) December 5, 2021

With this being a back to back, there’s no skate or anything to base lines off of. Here’s what we had last night, patched with some notes.

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner (?)
Alex Kerfoot - John Tavares - William Nylander
Pierre Engvall - David Kämpf - Ondřej Kaše
Nick Ritchie - Jason Spezza - Wayne Simmonds

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin Travis Dermott

Joseph Woll
Jack Campbell

Marner is still a game time decision, Wayne Simmonds filled in for him last night on the top line. Timothy Liljegren may be slotting into the line up as well.

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