Toronto Maple Leafs: Scheifele Returns To The GTA

Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs take on Mark Scheifele and the Winnipeg Jets.

Schiefele grew up in Kitchener, Ontario and played for the Kitchener Dutchmen as a kid. After his time in Kitchener with the Dutchmen, he played junior hockey in Barrie, Ontario with the Barrie Colts.

Last season, he appeared in 60 games played and registered 23 goals, 37 assists, 8 power-play goals, 8 power-play assists and a 18.4 shooting percentage (S%). He was averaging a point per game and if he hadn’t suffered a neck/collarbone injury in March, he likely would have had at least 82 points for the season.

In the playoffs, Schiefele didn’t slow down at all. In 17 playoff games, he posted 14 goals, 6 assists, 4 power-play goals and a 31.1 S%. Blake Wheeler and Scheifele led the charge for the Winnipeg Jets and it’s safe to say without Schiefele that the Jets wouldn’t be where they are today.

So far this season, Schiefele owns 5 goals, 6 assists, 3 power-play goals, 3 power-play assists and a 17.2 S%. While Schiefele has been rather productive, most of his success this season came on the power-play rather than 5v5.

In terms of his scoring rate, his Total Assists/60 rate is extremely low when comparing it to seasons past. To date, he owns a 0.68 Total Assists/60. Fortunately for Schiefele, the Jets have only played 11 games and he has roughly 70 games ahead of him. There is plenty of time for Schiefele to rebound and he likely will.

Aside from Schiefele, the Jets have a lethal offense and an outstanding power-play. Their top power-play unit is comprised of Schiefele, Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine and Josh Morrissey. Their second power-play unit isn’t half bad either. Paul Maurice, the head coach of the Jets has placed Nikolaj Ehlers, Bryan Little, Mathieu Perreault, Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers.

All-in-all, if the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to beat the Jets tonight and win the season series, they’ll need to stay out of penalty box. While the Maple Leafs have had more success on the power-play than the Jets, Mike Babcock needs to urge his players to remain out of the box.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Earlier this morning, Kristen Shilton of TSN tweeted out Mike Babcock’s lines from the Toronto Maple Leafs morning skate. Her tweet is below.

As you can see from Shilton’s tweet, Babcock hasn’t made any changes to his lineup. He has chosen to sit Andreas Johnsson and dress Tyler Ennis for another game.

In addition, Travis Dermott practiced this morning per Shilton’s report, but the Toronto Maple Leafs shouldn’t push him into the lineup too fast. Babcock and his coaching staff would be wise to give Dermott the night off and let him rest a bit more. Dermott has been ill for the past few days and the Maple Leafs shouldn’t try to rush him back.

Prediction & Game Notes

As long as the Toronto Maple Leafs can stay out of the penalty box and shut down the Jets top two lines, they should be able to win the season series against the Jets. My prediction is that the Toronto Maple Leafs will beat the Jets by a score of 5-3.

The game will kick off at approximately 7:05 pm EST and the game can be found on CBC.

stats from NHL.com, hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com