The Toronto Maple Leafs coming off one of, if not the very worst, game of the season this past Saturday against the New York Islanders.
The entire Toronto Maple Leafs roster, and their coach, and especially Oliver Ekman-Larsson (whom Berube tried with virtually every player he had and couldn't get anything going), had brutal games on Saturday.
Today, it is the last game before the Christmas break, and it's against the Winnipeg Jets.
The Leafs will look to go out on a high note before starting a three-day mini holiday before Friday's games against Detroit.
Auston Matthews Out of the Lineup Again - Maple Leafs vs Jets
You may remember that the Winnipeg Jets started off the year completely unbeatable, and that the only team that beat them during their record breaking streak was the Leafs.
The Jets won 14 of their first 15 games, with just the one loss to the Leafs. They remain the NHL's best team with a record of 24-10-1, though obviously they haven't that great since their incredible start.
The Leafs are sixth overall with a 20-11-2 record, and similarly to the Jets, the Leafs are also hiding many of their roster problems behind incredible goaltending.
The only real difference is that the Jets have an NHL Legend for a goalie who will go straight to the Hall of Fame when he retires, while the Leafs have two guys who haven't ever combined to play a full NHL season.
That's a pretty big difference though.
It's too bad about the Islanders game though because with a win today, the Leafs could have tied Washington for first place in the east going into the break. They won't do that now, but they can still go into the break tied for first in the division.
The starting goalies for todays game will be Connor Hellebuyck and Joseph Woll.
Finally, besides Auston Matthews being out, Chris Tanev is also scratched for this game. Tanev is 35 and in the first year of a hilarious six-year deal. It's hopefully just a chance to get him nearly a week off, because without the Leafs defense goes from middle-of-the-pack to among the worst in the NHL.
Hopefully the Leafs can pull off a great win today and go into the break on a high, because it looks like they might be without Auston Matthews for a while and will need every point they can get.