GAMEDAY: Jets vs Maple Leafs

WINNIPEG -Paul Maurice had his eye on tonight's tilt between the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs a few days ago.
It almost goes against the 'one day at a time' mentality. However, an adjustment the Jets head coach made prior to Monday's 5-1 win in Calgary had a lot to do with what the Jets (22-12-2) will see from the North Divison leading Maple Leafs (22-10-3).
Flipping centres Mark Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois had as much to do with getting a spark into his club at the end of a long road trip - a move that clearly paid off - as it did preparing for Toronto's style of play.
"You've got to give your team the best chance to win every night, but you also have to understand your team by the time the regular season is over," Maurice said. "The Toronto and Edmonton series (have) so much danger off the rush. You need to get through these games with an idea of what changes could you make to your lines when you play different teams when you get into a series and something isn't working."

The new combinations clearly worked against Calgary. Scheifele, alongside Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers, combined for eight points in Monday's victory. The two goals Scheifele had gave him 15 on the season and along with Connor's 17 and Ehlers' 15, the Jets are the only team in the NHL with three players at the 15-goal mark.

The trio of Dubois, Blake Wheeler, and Paul Stastny also found the score sheet in the third period.
"Pierre-Luc didn't slow the game down to keep Blake happy in the game. That's not what Blake wants, and he's vocal about that," said Maurice. "'Don't try to give me the puck to make me happy, put it in front, put it in a hole, put it in the corner and I'll go get it.' It takes some pressure off a guy. I think we saw slightly different style of game that Pierre-Luc can play."
After Tuesday's travel day, every Jet was on the ice for the morning skate. Connor Hellebuyck is expected to start in goal after his 29-save performance on Monday. In front of him, the Jets will look like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Stastny-Dubois-Wheeler
Copp-Lowry-Appleton
Perreault-Thompson-Lewis
Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
So far, the Jets are 2-1-0 in the first home game following a multi-game road trip this season.
A total of 12 of the last 14 games the Jets have played came away from Bell MTS Place. Copp felt that the morning skate was critical to the team this morning.
"I think everyone was a little slow moving around the locker room this morning trying to get warmed up," said Copp. "It got better as we went along, thank god the skate kind of gets you back, a sweat and kind of gets you back to neutral a little bit. We'll be ready to go tonight."
Of course, there is one other piece of motivation.

With a regulation win tonight, the Jets could take over top spot in the North Division.
"You want to beat the best, so I don't know if it has too much of an influence on the playoffs but it's just something you want to do," said Copp. "You want to be atop your division.
"I don't think there's too much on the line in terms of having an advantage over one another."
As far as the season series goes, the Jets are 2-1-1 against the Maple Leafs, including a stretch of three games earlier this month that saw Winnipeg earn five of six possible points from Toronto.

Jack Campbell starts in goal for the Maple Leafs. He's 6-0-0 with a 0.945 save percentage this season, and in front of him is an offence just as capable as Winnipeg's.
Both teams average 3.31 goals-per-game, tied for fourth best in the NHL.
"You want to take away their time and space as much as possible and keep them to the outside," said Copp. "We know that they're going to get some zone time, they're going to get some motion going, but I think if we keep them to the outside, keep the shots to the outside, let [Hellebuyck] see them, we're confident that he'll be able to handle those."
The last time these two teams met, the Jets earned a 5-2 victory in what many players described as one of the team's best efforts of the season.
Repeating that performance isn't easy, especially against a motivated Maple Leafs team with points in each of their last four outings (3-0-1).

While first place would be nice - there is still a long way to go.
Perhaps it's best to take it 'one day at a time.'
"We don't talk about the standings, we talk about our game," said Maurice. "Everybody is aware of how this fits. There are still 20 games left and you have three teams, two points, this thing is going to jockey all the way through."
Puck drop is set for 6:30 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Jets begin a four-game home stand on Wednesday with the first of two games against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Maple Leafs are the last team in the Canadian Division to visit Winnipeg this season. The first four meetings between the two sides took place in Toronto.
After playing 12 of 14 games on the road, Monday begins a stretch of 10 of 15 home games for the Jets.
Mark Scheifele is fifth in NHL scoring with 43 points (15G, 28A) in 36 games this season. He registered his first two-goal game of the season on Monday.
With Kyle Connor (17), Mark Scheifele (15), and Nikolaj Ehlers (15), the Jets are the only team in the NHL this season with three players that have at least 15 goals.
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