A rather unusual start time with a 1 PM CST puck drop in Toronto as the Jets and Leafs will get an early start on their holidays once this game concludes. It pits two of the top teams in the NHL against each other as Winnipeg sits 1st in the entire league (and by extension 1st in their division) while Toronto are 2nd in the Atlantic.
We learned in practice on Sunday in Manitoba that captain Adam Lowry and Nikolaj Ehlers both were not skating although the team advised that both were taking maintenance days. Which means we won’t know if they are playing until head coach Scott Arniel speaks prior to the game which is happening at 10:30 AM CST.
For the Leafs it seems unlikely captain Auston Matthews will be in the lineup. Of course they remain a formidable opponent who sit in 1st place in the Atlantic Division with a 21-11-2 record. They are also a very good home team (14-5-0). They have the 18th ranked power play and the 7th ranked penalty kill.
Skate news:
Given the rather unusual time for puck drop no morning skate.
Warm-up news:
Starts at 12:30 PM CST.
Jets projected lines & D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton Barron-Gustafsson-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo Fleury-Pionk Heinola-Miller
Hellebuyck Comrie
Leafs projected lines & D pairs:
Knies-Kampf-Marner Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander McMann-Domi-Robertson Lorentz-Dewar-Reaves
Rielly-Timmins Ekman-Larsson—Tanev Benoit-McCabe
Woll Hildeby
Based on last game as per Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun.
Coach’s comments:
Head coach Scott Arniel wouldn’t confirm whether Lowry and Ehlers will play today simply saying you’ll see in warm-up.
Up Next:
Puck drop is at 1 PM CST. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 3:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.
