Tonight is the opening match for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets in a season where the two teams will battle more times than ever before. The Jets had a fairly quiet off-season, not making many moves. But the move they did make was a big one, acquiring @Paul Stastny from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for @Carl Dahlstrom and a 2022 fourth-round selection.

More recently, the Jets have made some internal moves between their taxi squad and their roster, as well as claiming @Anton Forsberg off waivers last week to strengthen their goalie depth.

But the big story with the Jets has been the team’s apparent COVID exposure, as first @Nikolaj Ehlers missed practice due to COVID protocol, and then the team canceled practice entirely on Saturday “out of an abundance of caution” following COVID exposure. The canceled practice thankfully was an isolated incident, and the Jets headed east yesterday to make it to tonight’s match-up.

However, it now seems the Jets have been bitten by the injury bug, as well, as after leaving morning skate early it was announced that @Patrik Laine will be out tonight with an upper-body injury.

Chris Johnston

@reporterchris

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Patrik Laine is out tonight with an upper-body injury, per Paul Maurice.

6:01 PM · Jan 18, 2021

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Meanwhile, the Leafs are coming off a win in Ottawa, where they played solidly for the most part in the second game of the back-to-back against the Senators. @Auston Matthews scored his first goal of the season on Saturday night, and @Joe Thornton scored his first goal as a Leaf. @Jack Campbell was mostly solid in net, helping the team bounce back from a Friday night loss and take the 2 points.

The team looked less shaky in front of Campbell than they had in both games with Andersen in net, so the big question is have they shaken off their off-season rust and gotten their bearings, or is there something to be said for confidence in their netminder? With Andersen in goal tonight it’ll be interesting to watch.

Lineups

Toronto Maple Leafs

LW	C	RW
JOE THORNTON Rating: 72.3#74 LW	AUSTON MATTHEWS Rating: 82.3#6 C	MITCH MARNER Rating: 76.6#18 RW
JIMMY VESEY Rating: 70.6#107 LW	JOHN TAVARES Rating: 77.6#15 C	WILLIAM NYLANDER Rating: 76.1#23 RW
ILYA MIKHEYEV Rating: 74.0#42 LW	ALEXANDER KERFOOT Rating: 70.8#113 C	ZACH HYMAN Rating: 74.6#33 RW
MIKKO LEHTONEN	JASON SPEZZA Rating: 69.4#126 C	WAYNE SIMMONDS Rating: 70.2#112 RW

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
MORGAN RIELLY Rating: 75.3#14 LD	T.J. BRODIE Rating: 74.2#27 RD
JAKE MUZZIN Rating: 75.1#17 LD	JUSTIN HOLL Rating: 72.0#61 RD
TRAVIS DERMOTT Rating: 71.7#83 LD	ZACH BOGOSIAN Rating: 71.4#76 RD

Winnipeg Jets

LW	C	RW
NIKOLAJ EHLERS Rating: 75.7#20 LW	MARK SCHEIFELE Rating: 76.8#19 C	BLAKE WHEELER Rating: 76.3#22 RW
KYLE CONNOR Rating: 79.5#5 LW	PAUL STASTNY Rating: 74.8#36 C	PATRIK LAINE Rating: 74.7#31 RW
ANDREW COPP Rating: 72.5#60 LW	ADAM LOWRY Rating: 69.2#149 C	MASON APPLETON Rating: 69.5#123 RW
MATHIEU PERREAULT Rating: 71.1#96 LW	NATE THOMPSON Rating: 69.4#145 C	TREVOR LEWIS Rating: 70.1#114 RW

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
JOSH MORRISSEY Rating: 74.1#29 LD	SAMI NIKU Rating: 71.4#92 RD
DEREK FORBORT Rating: 70.5#109 LD	NEAL PIONK Rating: 75.3#20 RD
LOGAN STANLEY	NATHAN BEAULIEU Rating: 72.1#72 RD

*these lineups were set before Laine was announced as out, and Ehlers coming in for him.

Leafs player to watch: Auston Matthews

After going scoreless in the first two games, Matthews scored his first goal of the season Saturday night. He was clearly hungry for it, notching 16 SOG over the last three games. Now that he’s apparently shaken off the off-season rust, look for beast-mode Matthews to start showing up more often. And of course, there’s always the friendly competition between Leafs fans and Jets fans about who is better, Matthews or Patrik Laine. Unfortunately, with Laine out tonight, we’ll have to wait a bit to get a good look.

Jets player to watch: Blake Wheeler

With Patrik Laine out tonight, we turn our eyes to the captain, @Blake Wheeler. The Jets only have one game under their belts this season, with Wheeler notching an assist on the 3rd of 4 goals. But with their star player not in the lineup, everyone is going to have to step up, and that starts with the captain. The Wheeler-led Jets aren’t an easy matchup for the Leafs, and it should be fun to watch!

Leafs starting goalie: Frederik Andersen

As mentioned, Andersen has had a shaky start to the season, with a save percentage of just .839 over the two games he’s played. Not only does Freddie look rocky, the team in front of him looks less than confident, too. It’ll be interesting tonight to see if Freddie can get back some of the steadiness he has been known for, or whether the team will have to work to outscore his challenges.

Jets starting goalie: Connor Hellebuyck

Though unconfirmed at the time of writing, it’s assumed that @Connor Hellebuyck will be in net for the Jets tonight. Hellebuyck is on many short lists to win the Vezina, in fact he’s the favourite for quite a few analysts. He won’t be easy for the Leafs to score on, which makes it all the more important that Freddie plays well.