As a lifelong fan of all three reincarnations of the Winnipeg Jets hockey team, I am well aware that us fans have had to deal with more than our fair share of disappointment over the years. Yet, I am not sure that any prior version of the Jets have been as disheartening as the 2025-26 roster.
Coming off a fantastic campaign that saw them win their first President’s Trophy, the True North franchise’s trajectory has absolutely plummeted this season, with the club going from the best team in the NHL to the worst in the span of 365 days. That is not an easy feat to accomplish without significant roster turnover occurring and has certainly been difficult to witness for us fans. Perhaps even more disturbing….we still have more than half of the season to go.
Speaking of that, I admittedly got caught off guard with Winnipeg playing again today….a sign that even a fanatic like myself is already allowing my mind to wander towards the upcoming draft in an attempt to mentally fast forward the rest of the Jets’ regular season. Today’s match against the Toronto Maple Leafs will represent the fourth back-to-back situation of the year for our team, with five more on tap in the second half of the season. So far, Winnipeg has lost the opening match twice only to win the second contest, with the other set going to the opposite route as the Jets won the first game only to drop the follow up.
The Jets (15-19-4) have amassed a measly 34 points through 38 games this year, which has them sitting on the basement floor of the NHL. The Leafs (18-15-6) are hardly lighting things up in their first season without Mitch Marner, but their 42 points in 39 contests puts them in the 21st spot of the league. Winnipeg sits in 27th in the NHL for goals scored (108) while allowing the 11th least against (116). Toronto is sort of the opposite, with the 11th most goals (128) and the 22nd fewest goals against (129).
Coming into their first game of 2026, the True Northers have dropped 7 straight contests which is part of a 1-7-3 record over their last 11 matches. The Maple Leafs are coming off a shut out victory over the New Jersey Devils, but have only gone 4-4-2 over their past 10 games.
Tonight’s 6:00 pm Central game between Winnipeg & Toronto will feature franchises putting up the following stats, via ESPN‘s team & goaltender comparison numbers:
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The Toronto Maples Leafs are a bit banged up right now, with star forward William Nylander expected to be out of the line up and other players like defensemen Brandon Carlo & Chris Tanev and goalie Anthony Stolarz injured as well. Winnipeg on the other hand is completely healthy, not that it has been helping them out much.
No pre-game skate today due to the quick turn around….so here is how PuckPedia is currently predicting the players to line up:
WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS LINE UP
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With not a lot left to say….I will default to throwing some more stats out at you instead. Here are the top 10 scorers for both clubs at this point of the season, courtesy of ESPN:
WINNIPEG
TORONTO
Go Winnipeg Jets!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE: Toronto Maple Leafs 6 Winnipeg Jets 5
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): WPG 3.89 TOR 2.74
Expected Goals (5on5): TOR 2.44 WPG 2.34
Winnipeg rolled 4 lines for the most part, with them getting between 9:22 and 14:57 in playing time. The Scheifele line led the way, getting 2 even strength goals for the Jets…but also giving up 3. The Lowry & Namestnikov units also had goals against, though only the captain’s trio were able to even things up by scoring their own. The Toews line was great defensively, allowing the least amount of xG’s for Toronto.
The decision to pair Morrissey & Pionk together got the expected result offensively, as the duo were on the ice for 2 of the Jets’ even strength goals. Unfortunately, they were also on for 3 Maple Leaf goals, which probably should have been expected because neither tend to thrive in their own end. The Samberg–DeMelo pairing were very good at both ends of the ice in their 17 minutes together, ending with the most xG’s for Winnipeg and the least xG’s for Toronto. Yet, they only broke even in the actual goals scored battle.
Comrie had already let in a couple goals that shouldn’t have gone past him…..then he bobbles the puck to gift the opposition the game winning goal. Definitely not his night. The backup’s game has not been good since he was tapped to take over for the injured Hellebuyck. He better find the confidence to play like he did last year and early in this campaign….because Bucky can’t play the whole second half of the season.
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BOJA’S Post-Game Thoughts:
Yet another game where the Winnipeg Jets win the Expected Goals battle. The struggling offense finally broke through…only to be stifled by a very poor goaltending performance. It would be comical if I wasn’t emotionally invested in the club, but the boys keep finding ways to surprise me this season. Unfortunately, not in a good way.
