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The Maple Leafs will get their highly-anticipated 2017-18 season underway with a visit to Winnipeg (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet).

The schedule makers, squaring these two teams off on opening day for the first time in league history, have recognized that there is a ton of intrigue packed into this matchup despite it being a cross-conference rivalry.

The Jets finished the 2016-17 season on a surge of seven consecutive wins despite missing the playoffs, while the Leafs made the postseason for the first time since 2013 and gave the President’s Trophy-winning Washington Capitals all they could handle in a six-game quarterfinal series decided by exclusively one-goal games, including five overtimes.

The two teams iced rosters that were among the youngest in the NHL last season and possess ample offensive firepower, with both clubs finishing 2016-17 inside the top ten in goals-for. The sides traded 5-4 overtime decisions last year – with both teams winning at home — on the back of three-point efforts from star rookies and draft classmates Patrik Laine and Auston Matthews.

The two meetings were back-and-forth shoot-‘em-ups with several dramatic momentum swings, in keeping with the high-event nature of the two clubs in 2016-17. The Leafs established early leads and generated a whopping 77 shots on goal over the two games; however, they coughed up multiple leads and didn’t receive the best outings from goaltender Frederik Andersen. Compared to this time last year (the Leafs and Jets met in Winnipeg in the second game of the season), Andersen enters the 2017-18 campaign in a much better spot — after a strong finish to 2016-17, he’s fully healthy and playing confidently coming out of preseason.

Starting in net at the other end of the rink will be free agent addition Steve Mason, who is coming off a down year in Philadelphia but will be asked to help solve the Jets’ long-standing goaltending issues in a platoon with Connor Hellebuyck this year. In their most recent meeting with Mason – last November against the Flyers — the Leafs put six past him on 23 shots.

Defensively, the Leafs will need to find a way to key in on Laine — who scored five goals in the two-game series last season — and limit a dangerous top-six forward group in Winnipeg that presents some significant challenges with its mix of size, speed and skill. The Jets have loaded up their top six – somewhat at the expense of a deeper three or four-line attack – with Mathieu Perreault on the wing next to Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler followed by Nikolaj Ehlers, Bryan Little and Patrik Laine on line two.

The Leafs would appear to enter this game with the edge in forward depth, giving them the ability to exploit some favourable matchups with their secondary scoring lines. With the addition of Patrick Marleau to what was already a top-five offense, Mike Babcock will be able to roll four lines over the boards as well as just about any coach in the league this season. On paper, the Leafs also carry the edge in net, but the Jets unquestionably possess a dangerous top six and a superior right side of their defence core.

The Leafs may need to weather an early storm inside a raucous Bell MTC Place tonight, in which case a few saves from Frederik Andersen early will go a long way in soothing any early turbulence.


Game Day Quotes

Mike Babcock on the opening-day excitement:

It’s an anxious time of year for the players, for the coaches, for the fans. You think you’re set up to have a good year and yet you don’t know until you get started. We’re excited to get started and we’re playing against a real good team. It should be fun.

Babcock on the challenge facing the Leafs’ young talent in their sophomore seasons:

People know them now. It’s not like they didn’t know who Matthews was last year, but now they really know who he is. It’s like any player in the league. They’re trying to get better each and every year. The best players find ways to get better. They work that much harder and they’re committed that much more and they train that much harder and they keep taking steps. There are a lot of good players in the league that don’t take steps. That has a lot to do with your off-ice season and your passion for the game. The stars have unbelievable passion and they keep getting better.

Babcock on two Canadian teams (Winnipeg and Toronto) having so much promising young talent:

It’s exciting for those markets. I’ll tell you there are a whole lot of US teams that think they’ve got the same thing going on. You guys are just focused on these groups because there were a couple of dead years there. Now, these teams look like they’re back.

Pittsburgh set the standard in the NHL the last little bit, and before that LA and Chicago. With these teams, we can talk about the potential, but in the end, you’ve got to deliver. That’s what we’re all trying to do.

Babcock on the challenge presented by the Jets:

Size, skill, speed. They’ve been good for a number of years and they’re getting better.

Babcock on what would make for a successful NHL debut for Andreas Borgman:

Don’t be in any video clips tomorrow.

Paul Maurice on whether he feels this is the season where the Jets go from a good young team to a legitimate threat:

Yes, tonight. We’ll know it all by the end of the game [laughs].

Maurice on the biggest hurdle his team needs to clear this season:

The defensive parts of the game with young, skilled, offensive players. They come into the NHL… here, if you don’t do your job, you’ve got a real problem. It takes them a while to learn that job. We’ve invested two years in a lot of young players. You can see it in practice how they’re able to get through the driving, hard parts of practice and the next day they come back and they’re fresh again. They’re stronger men. We believe we’ve gotten better. We’ve invested heavily in that. The last few years we’ve had over 900 games by players under the age of 25. We’re expecting those guys to get incrementally better at all parts of the game.

On the makeup of his bottom six:

Adam Lowry sets up the wings on that line. We felt we needed to have at least five guys in that group right now, with who the centermen are, that can kill penalties based on the way the exhibition games have been called. We’re all hoping the players have made the adjustments and we understand how the game is going to get called, but if not, I don’t think you can run your power play guys and penalty kill guys on the same systems.


Matchup Stats

Statistics courtesy of SportingCharts.com

StatWpgTor
Season Series1-0-11-0-1
Points8795
Record %.530.579
Home Winning %.526.598
Away Winning %.500.550
Shootout Winning %.750.111
Goal Differential Per Game-0.110.2
Shot Differential Per Game-1.2-0.68
Hits Per Game23.223.6
PIM Per Game10.29.7
Opponent PIM Per Game9.710
Goals Per Game33.05
Even Strength Goals Per Game2.292.27
Power Play Goals Per Game0.590.71
Shots Per Game29.931.9
Shots Per Goal1010.5
Team Shooting %10.1%9.6%
Power Play %18.223.8
Goals Against Per Game3.112.85
ES Goals Against Per Game2.242.23
PP Goals Against Per Game0.760.54
Shots Against Per Game31.0532.6
Shots Against Per Goal9.9811.42
Opp. Team Shooting %10%8.8%
Penalty Kill %77.5%82.5%
Save %0.9000.913
Goals Against Average3.082.81
Shutouts55
Opponent Save %0.9000.905
Opponent Goals Against Average2.973
Opponent Shutouts22

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines

Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
JvR – Bozak – Marner
Marleau – Kadri – Komarov
Martin – Fehr – Brown
Scratched: Leivo, Moore

Defencemen
Gardiner – Zaitsev
Rielly – Hainsey
Borgman – Carrick
Scratched: Marincin

Goalies
Andersen (S)
McElhinney

PP1

Komarov
Matthews – Marleau – Nylander
Rielly

PP2

JVR
Bozak – Kadri – Marner
Gardiner

PK1

Hyman – Komarov
Hainsey – Zaitsev

PK2

Brown – Fehr
Rielly – Borgman


Winnipeg Jets Projected Lines

Forwards
Perreault – Scheifele – Wheeler
Ehlers – Little – Laine
Tanev – Lowry – Armia
Dano – Matthias – Petan

Defencemen
Morrissey – Trouba
Enstrom – Byfuglien
Kulikov – Myers

Goalies
Mason (S)
Hellebuyck


Morning Skate: Babcock, Fehr, Matthews, Borgman

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