In the words of Troy Stecher, the Maple Leafs need to “empty the tank” to end a tough road trip on a high note against a surging Winnipeg Jets team tonight on HNIC (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC).
Game Day Quotes
Jets head coach Scott Arniel on a HNIC matchup between the Leafs and Jets:
This one is pretty cool because it is Hockey in Canada. All the Canadian teams are on. It is exciting. When you are playing the Leafs, you know you are getting the national broadcast. It is a big deal.
You know what? All the more reason for us to go out and get two points.
Arniel on his team’s lessons from the 6-5 loss to the Maple Leafs on January 1:
There will be some clips that we use, both good and bad. The big thing: I think we had nine turnovers, and seven of them became scoring chances the other way. This is not a team you can do that against — or against any team, really. We didn’t manage the puck very well, especially in that second period.
It was back a few games, so that is something that we’ve talked a lot about and worked on, and we’ve seen some really good teams who were good in transition in the last two weeks. We had to make sure it was a key point. It is no different tonight. Don’t hand them free gifts or freebies. That is all part of winning hockey games: doing the right things.
Arniel on the reasons for the Jets’ strong offensive production of late (20 goals scored in four straight wins):
The big thing about this league: you have to use the whole zone. You can’t play corner hockey and try to score. You can’t sit in one area and try to have situations where you are going to make tape-to-tape, backdoor tap-in type plays. It is just the way the league is, with the way teams swarm and attack low with numbers there. You have to spread them out.
Using the top is the way you have to do it, whether it is your D being mobile — diving in or diving down the walls — or if it is working high and getting centered. That, to me, has probably been the biggest part of it: our defensemen have found ways to get pucks down to the net front to create the scramble and take the opposition out of their coverage, so to speak.
When you shoot pucks and create the explosion, that is when the holes open up. That is when opportunities happen. We are doing a better job of getting pucks low to high and then getting from the top to the net front.
Craig Berube on the keys to success against a surging Jets team:
Winnipeg is coming off a big win, and they’re a tough team at home. They’re playing a lot better, and they’re a big, heavy team. The top line is dangerous, for sure, and obviously, their goalie is elite. We have to do a good job against that top line, and we’re going to have to out-compete that goalie tonight. He is good, so we need second and third opportunities around the net.
Against this team, we are going to have to be heavy in our own zone and at our net front. They’re a big team that gets to the net well. They’re number one or two in the league at deflections. That will be a big part of the game for us tonight: They have size, and they have skill, so we have to do a good job around our net tonight. It’ll be a big key.
Berube on giving tonight’s start to Dennis Hildeby:
I liked that he came into the last Winnipeg game and did a good job for us. In the game the other night in Utah, that was more on us as a team than on him. I think he was under siege pretty good there. He made a lot of really good saves.
For me, as I’ve talked about, his game has really grown. He is building more and more confidence and is understanding the league a lot better. I’ve really liked a lot of what he’s done.
Troy Stecher on the challenge against the Jets:
They’re a good team. They’ve had success in the past couple of years. It doesn’t just go away. They have a really good team still. They’ve obviously found their game recently.
We played them pretty recently at home, and we had that big comeback win. It is just about taking film from there and understanding what worked for them, how we can make a change, and what worked for us.
Any time you score six in a game, you are obviously doing a lot of good things.
Stecher on the team’s areas of focus coming off the OTL in Vegas:
There are some things we went over. On the 6-on-5 and having a broken stick, we were talking through some different details with that.
Our penalty kill — I feel like our five-on-five and PK go hand in hand. The PK has been a real big strength of our team, and in the last game, it faltered a little bit. It is definitely an area we are going to focus on.
For us, it’s about getting back to taking away space, trying to make our box or our diamond as big as it can, forcing them to move the puck along the perimeter, and avoiding those seam passes.
Maple Leafs (23-16-8) vs. Jets (19-22-5): Head-to-Head Stats
via NaturalStatTrick.com & AdvancedHockeyStats.com
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#74 Bobby McMann – #34 Auston Matthews – #11 Max Domi
#63 Matias Maccelli – #91 John Tavares – #23 Matthew Knies
#53 Easton Cowan – #55 Nic Roy – #89 Nick Robertson
#18 Steven Lorentz – #24 Scott Laughton – #19 Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe – #28 Troy Stecher
#44 Morgan Rielly – #25 Brandon Carlo
#95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson – #51 Philippe Myers
Goaltenders
Starter: #35 Dennis Hildeby
#60 Joseph Woll
Extras: Matt Benning, Jacob Quillan
Injured/Out: William Nylander (day-to-day), Simon Benoit (day-to-day), Chris Tanev (IR), Dakota Joshua (IR), Dakota Mermis (LTIR), Anthony Stolarz (LTIR)
Winnipeg Jets Projected Lines
Forwards
#81 Kyle Connor – #55 Mark Scheifele – #9 Alex Iafallo
#91 Cole Perfetti – #19 Jonathan Toews – #13 Gabriel Vilardi
#62 Nino Niederreiter – #17 Adam Lowry – #7 Vladislav Namestnikov
#45 Cole Koepke – #36 Morgan Barron – #70 Tanner Pearson
Defensemen
#44 Josh Morrissey – #2 Dylan Demelo
#54 Dylan Samberg – #57 Elias Salomonsson
#64 Logan Stanley – #5 Luke Schenn
Goaltenders
Starter: #37 Connor Hellebuyck
#1 Eric Comrie
Injured/Out: Neal Pionk, Haydn Fleury, Colin Miller
