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Game Preview: Jets Looking For Road Points Against The Leafs



For the second time this season the Winnipeg Jets were embarrassed by the Montreal Canadiens, this time it occurred on the Habs home ice. The Jets must look to put that one behind them quickly as they face the Toronto Maple Leafs in T.O. tonight.

In case you missed it the Jets fell by a 7-3 margin last night. It was not pretty. Scoring 3 goals is all well and good. Allowing 7 is terrible. That better not happen again tonight. Because as much as I dislike the Habs, I hate the Leafs. I blame Mats Sundin…and the fact that they haven’t won a Cup since 67 but still maintain a fanbase that always thinks “this is the year”. I’d love it if the Jets won the Cup, but I don’t expect it. But every year when the Leafs get a nice 3-0-0 start people and pundits start saying “this is the year”. Talk to me in May. We’ll see if you’re right.

Something to stoke the egos of the Leafs faithful was a 7-3 drubbing of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday…3 days after losing 3-2 to Winnipeg.

These guys are beatable, even if this is a back to back. But the Jets sure as hell have to play a better game than last night.

Keys to the Game, player Numbers and Lineups after THE JUMP

Keys to the Game:

  • Play better than yesterday
  • Seriously
  • Bryan Little might very well make his return to the lineup tonight, which should add some offensive spark.
  • Eric Fehr seemingly had a fire under his but for some reason yesterday…didn’t produce anything but he seemed to be trying
  • Speaking of trying…Nik Antropov…what the hell happened? Where’d you go? Why aren’t you skating?
  • Pavelec was shaky last night…nobody’s perfect
  • I know Flood had a bad game against Toronto…but I don’t know how Hainsey can repeatedly escape the press box. Oh wait yeah I do…he makes way more money than Flood.
  • I’d like to see GST get back together to see what Mittens can do with Steam Punk and Fehr. If Fehr is going to get going, maybe put him with people more dangerous offensively than Thorburn?
  • Wouldn’t mind Boogie with Stu either. That likely requires buff to come back, which might not happen for a few days.

Jets

Forwards

#9 Evander Kane – #18 Bryan Little – #26 Blake Wheeler

#16 Andrew Ladd – #80 Nik Antropov – #13 Kyle Wellwood

#15 Tanner Glass – #8 Alexander Burmistrov – #20 Antti Miettinen

#17 Eric Fehr – #14 Tim Stapleton – #22 Chris Thorburn

Defencemen

#39 Tobias Enstrom – #6 Ron Hainsey

#29 Johnny Oduya – #4 Zach Bogosian

#5 Mark Stuart – #12 Randy Jones

Goaltender

#50 Chris Mason

I don’t really feel like seeing Pavs get creamed again, so Mason gets my start. We’ll see

Leafs (GP 39 19-15-5 43 PTS)

Forwards

#19 Joffrey Lupul — #12 Tim Connolly — #81 Phil Kessel

#46 Joey Crabb — #84 Mikhail Grabovski — #41 Nikolai Kulemin

#16 Clarke MacArthur — #15 Matthew Lombardi — #43 Nazem Kadri

#47 Darryl Boyce — #20 David Steckel — #39 Matt Frattin

Defencemen

#3 Dion Phaneuf — #59 Keith Aulie

#2 Luke Schenn#36 Carl Gunnarsson

#51 Jake Gardiner — #4 Cody Franson

Goaltender

#34 James Reimer

Player to boo without mercy: Same as last week, I’m going with Kessel. He’s easy to dislike (in a hockey sense, i’m sure he’s a very nice young man in the real world)

Predicition: Winnipeg 3-2 Toronto (OT)

Going out on a limb because that’s how I live. Crunch.

GO JETS GO!

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