The Toronto Maple Leafs embarrass Mark Scheifele
A comment Mark Scheifele made nearly three years ago still haunts him as the Jets have failed to beat the Maple Leafs ever since
Is there anything better than beating the Toronto Maple Leafs? Well if you ask Kitchener native Mark Scheifele that is like winning the Stanley Cup. That may be a stretch, but the comments the former seventh overall pick of the 2011 draft made nearly three years ago during a regular season victory in December has become the butt of jokes in Leafs Nation.
Scheifle made the comment "is there anything better than beating the Leafs?" while handing out the Winnipeg Jets victory helmet to Logan Stanley in December 2021. The career Jet has had nothing to celebrate since that game as the Toronto Maple Leafs have won each and every contest where the two teams have met since, stringing together six straight victories by outscoring Winnipeg 26-11.
During those six victories, the Leafs have scored at least four goals in all but won contest, even eclipsing a half dozen twice.
The one game they did not put on a scoring feast, Ilya Samsonov turned away 32 shots for a 1-0 overtime shutout.
Mark Scheifele and the Winnipeg Jets Lose Sixth Straight to the Maple Leafs
The comments always seemed a little odd as the two teams aren't conference foes, let alone divisional opponents. The only type of rivalry that appeared to be brewing was due to the 2016 NHL Entry Draft where the media tried pitting Patrik Laine and Auston Matthews against each other, but nothing really amounted to that as the two teams meet just twice a year.
The Maple Leafs Twitter account decided to have a little fun at the expense of Scheifele by posting a picture of John Tavares with the game belt with the caption "Anything better than a new belt pic?". Tavares earned the honours with his 13th career hattrick and his first in a year and a half when he backhanded a puck from center ice into the empty net Monday night.
Coach Craig Berube elected to go with two high end scoring lines by having the former Maple Leafs captain center veteran Max Pacioretty and William Nylander. The trio seemed to have some chemistry as they each had three points, including Nylander scoring his team leading sixth goal of the season.
Despite the mockery in this writing about Scheifele, he did manage to contribute collecting one of the four Winnipeg goals while also adding an assist which now puts him at 12-points through his first nine games of the season.
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The two teams will now go their separate ways until December 23 when Winnipeg comes to Toronto and Scheifele hopes to end his six game losing streak to the Maple Leafs.