Maple Leafs at Jets preview

MAPLE LEAFS (0-0-0) at JETS (0-0-0)
7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV

Goaltender Steve Mason will start his first game for the Winnipeg Jets, who have won their past four openers. Mason, who signed a two-year contract (average annual value $4.1 million) on July 1 after five seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, was 1-1-1 with 2.31 goals-against average and.918 save percentage in three preseason starts.

Players to watch

Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews is the reigning Calder Trophy winner after leading NHL rookies in goals (40) and points (69). The No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, had seven points (five goals, two assists) in four preseason games.
Jets forward Patrik Laine, the No. 2 pick in 2016, was the runner-up in Calder voting after his 64 points (36 goals, 28 assists) were second behind Matthews. He had eight points (five goals, three assists) in four preseason games, including four goals on the power play.

They said it

"The League is always adjusting to you, so you got to make adjustments back. Now that we have a full year under our belts, teams obviously know our strengths and our weaknesses, and play us more to a structured game and limit our chances. It's obviously our job to adjust back." -- Matthews
"I'm really excited to get going here, I think everybody is. It's Game 1 of 82, we just have to handle it one game at a time. But I think we're all ready to put last season and the summer behind us and get going."-- Mason

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Zach Hyman -- Auston Matthews -- William Nylander
James van Riemsdyk -- Tyler Bozak -- Mitchell Marner
Patrick Marleau -- Nazem Kadri -- Leo Komarov
Matt Martin -- Eric Fehr -- Connor Brown
Morgan Rielly -- Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner -- Nikita Zaitsev
Andreas Borgman -- Connor Carrick
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Dominic Moore, Josh Leivo, Martin Marincin
Injured: None

Jets projected lineup

Mathieu Perreault -- Mark Scheifele -- Blake Wheeler
Nikolaj Ehlers -- Bryan Little -- Patrik Laine
Shawn Matthias -- Adam Lowry -- Joel Armia
Marko Dano -- Andrew Copp -- Brandon Tanev
Josh Morrissey -- Jacob Trouba
Toby Enstrom -- Dustin Byfuglien
Dmitry Kulikov -- Tyler Myers
Steve Mason
Connor Hellebuyck
Scratched:Nic Petan, Ben Chiarot, Tucker Poolman
Injured:Matt Hendricks (lower body)

Status report

Ehlers signed a seven-year, $42 million contract Wednesday. ... Hendricks (lower body) was placed on injured reserve Tuesday, retroactive to Sept. 27. ... Borgman will make his NHL debut.

Stat pack

The Jets had the No. 1 power play in the preseason (29.5 percent) with 13 of their 17 goals on the man-advantage. … Nylander had seven points (four goals, three assists) in four preseason games.