Game 24: Jets vs Leafs pre-game report

The Jets got their offensive game going on Friday as they scored eight goals against the Devils but they will have to play a tighter game tonight when they face the Leafs for the first time this season. While Toronto played last night in St. Paul they fought back from a three goal deficit to force OT before they ultimately fell to the Wild in a shootout. The Leafs will be without Mitch Marner for tonight’s game.

There has already been a lot of talk about Blake Wheeler playing in game number 1000 tonight and you can expect that to continue as it dominated the morning papers and this theme will continue into the contest.

Morning skate:

Nathan Beaulieu and Riley Nash stayed on for extra work according to Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet which means you can expect no changes to the Jets lineup.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Copp-Dubois-Ehlers
Stastny-Lowry-Vesalainen
Harkins-Toninato-Svechnikov

Morrissey-Schmidt
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) What did they need to clean up from the Devils game?
2) What were his takeaways from the Leafs/Wild game last night? (1:51)
3) His players crashing the crease (2:46)
4) How would he handle an overloaded Leafs top line? (3:49)
5) The power play goal they surrendered to New Jersey (4:49)
6) His thoughts on the power play (5:29)
7) The buzz for the Bombers, Leafs in town to face Jets , Wheeler’s 1000th game (6:25)
8) What has he seen from Wheeler/Connor on the penalty kill (6:57)
9) The need for a more aggressive PK (7:45)
10) Will it ever be Scheifele/Ehlers on the penalty kill (8:36)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7 pm CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game interviews from Jets players as well as from head coach Paul Maurice.  You can also join us afterwards for our post-game show here (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).