GAMEDAY: Jets at Maple Leafs

Cole Perfetti has played 58 games in the National Hockey League, but he had to wait all the way until number 59 to play inside Scotiabank Arena.
The product of Whitby, ON has already lost count of the number of people coming to tonight's tilt between the Winnipeg Jets (29-15-1) and Toronto Maple Leafs (27-11-7).
"Lots of people and lots of support, which I'm pretty thankful for," said the 21-year-old after this morning's optional skate. "I'm just super grateful that I have that support and all these people want to come watch me play."
The left-winger would love to send all those friends and family home with memories of a Jets win. Doing so would help the Jets respond from a 4-1 setback in Montreal to open the season-long five-game road trip, and also split the season series with the Maple Leafs.
Even though these two teams only meet twice per season, the on-ice intensity between them once the puck drops always gets ramped up to the highest degree.

"I'm new to it all," said Perfetti, who had an assist in Winnipeg's 4-1 loss to Toronto back on October 22. "It was fun the first game, they came into our building and took two points from us. We know what we have to do tonight to get a little bit of revenge on that. It's a fun game, two really good teams going at it. It's going to be exciting to play."

Both the Jets and the Maple Leafs have three wins in their last five games, but a somewhat wider look at the last 10 outings shows eight Winnipeg victories, while Toronto is 5-4-1.
However, Jets head coach Rick Bowness went over Toronto's last game, a 5-4 comeback overtime win over Florida, and knows the Jets can expect a stiff test tonight.
"(Toronto head coach) Sheldon (Keefe) and his staff have done a great job cutting down their goals against. We'll have to work for everything we get," said Bowness. "We take pride in our goals against as well. It should be a very entertaining game. They can score, we have some guys that can score. These are one of those games, coming in here only once a year, that you should get very excited about, and we all are."

With the skate on Thursday morning being optional, and not every member of the team skating, it's difficult to project what Winnipeg's line-up could look like.
In Wednesday's full team practice, the line rushes looked like this:
Connor-Dubois-Wheeler
Barron-Scheifele-Ehlers
Perfetti-Lowry-Maenalanen
Kuhlman-Stenlund-Gagner
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Heinola-Schmidt
But when Bowness was asked about those lines this morning, his response was concise.
"We'll see."
Still, if it ends up this way, Perfetti is looking forward to the opportunity of playing with Adam Lowry and Saku Maenalanen.
"When we're going strong, all four lines are playpen the same way and looking the same way," said Perfetti. "Lows and Saku are big guys, they're strong powerful guys. I think we can work really well together if we get down low. They're really big, they free up a lot of pucks, and work really hard. We might be able to complement each other really well."
The concept of that trio is all about creating a bit more space for Perfetti, says Bowness, adding that the young forward excels when he has a little time and space.
"He sees the ice very well. He has a good hockey IQ, he knows where people are and he hangs onto pucks," said Bowness. "We're on the road, we don't get last line change. Give him some big physical guys that can help him defensively and help him protect the puck in the o-zone, give him a little extra room. We'll take a look at that."
Connor Hellebuyck is expected to make his 35th start of the season tonight, putting him ahead of two other Central Division netminders - Jake Oettinger of Dallas and Jordan Binnington of St. Louis - for the league-lead in that department.

Hellebuyck has faced the fourth most shots in the NHL this season (1,076), but Bowness - and goaltending coach Wade Flaherty - are keeping tabs on where those are coming from, especially as it pertains to Hellebuyck's workload.
"I work closely with Wade to make sure Connor gets the proper amount of rest, and the proper amount of work so he doesn't get too much time off," Bowness said. "If we can cut down on the quality of chances, and the workload when he's playing, it's a lot easier to give him those days off to help him recover for the next time."
Hellebuyck and the Jets have fully recovered from the road trip opening loss to Montreal, and will pour all that energy into tonight's tilt with the Maple Leafs.
If it results in a win, well, it'll be exactly the type of memory Perfetti wants to have after his first game in Toronto.
"It's something you dream of since you were little, watching the games on TV or coming to the games and thinking about how cool it would be to play one day in this building against the Leafs," he said. "It's a dream come true. Now that's finally here I'm just pretty anxious and pretty excited for tonight."
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Jets are in the midst of playing 10 of 13 games against Eastern Conference opponents. Winnipeg is 8-8-0 against the Eastern Conference this season, but have won three of the past five games.
Winnipeg is tied for fourth in the NHL with a 6-2-0 record in January. The most wins the Jets have had in January is eight during the 2018-19 season.
The Jets are 12-9-1 on the road this season and have won three of their past five road contests. Defenceman Josh Morrissey (2G, 20A) leads the Jets in scoring on the road with 22 points. Mark Scheifele has a team-leading 11 goals.
The Jets have scored a power play goal in three consecutive games, having gone 1-for-2 in three straight. Winnipeg is 9-for-32 on the power play in the past 10 games. The Jets have climbed to 10th in the NHL with a power play successful 24.6 percent of the time.
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