Wheeler leaves game with injury as Jets fall 3-1 to Leafs

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This article was published 31/03/2021 (1627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was none of the usual pomp as the Toronto Maple Leafs paid their first visit of the season to an otherwise empty Bell MTS Place, and the circumstances surrounding Wednesday’s clash between the Canadian rivals weren’t exactly routine either.

First place was on the line, which would never be the case in a non-COVID year where the two teams are playing in different conferences. In the end, the Winnipeg Jets missed an opportunity to leap-frog Toronto, falling 3-1 in a game where seemingly everything that could have gone wrong did.

Captain Blake Wheeler was lost to injury in the first period and never returned. Paul Stastny’s teeth had to be fished out of the Maple Leafs net. Pierre-Luc Dubois delivered an accidental knee-on-knee hit to teammate Derek Forbort which directly led to Toronto’s first goal of the game. And the red-hot Jets power play gave up a dagger in the form of a shorthanded breakaway tally that put this one on ice.

Even the post-game Zooms didn’t work properly, the audio of players and coach Paul Maurice repeatedly cutting out. Yeah, it was that kind of night.

Winnipeg falls to 22-13-2 and remain in second place in the all-Canadian division. They are now three points behind Toronto, which improves to 23-10-3.

Forward Andrew Copp ended up being bang-on when he predicted, following a sluggish morning skate, that his team might have a tough day at the office on deck. The Jets were coming off a season-long seven game road trip through western Canada and, to quote Copp, were “feeling it.” And not in a good way.

“I was worried about this one right from the day the schedule came out. It looked like it in the first,” Maurice said.

No kidding. The Jets spotted the Maple Leafs a quick 2-0 lead that actually flattered the home team. Winnipeg gave up 10 high-danger chances at five-on-five in the opening 20 minutes while generating none of their own. They were outshot 14-6. Only Connor Hellebuyck kept this one close.

“It was a pretty stinky start. No two ways to slice it,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele.

The NHL’s leading goal scorer, Auston Matthews, made it 1-0 4:40 into the game after Dubois accidentally took out Forbort, which opened up the slot for the Toronto centre to score his 24th. Forbort missed a few shifts but was able to return.

Matthews did some more damage a few minutes later, setting up linemate Zach Hyman at 10:47 to double the lead. Mitch Marner had just undressed Logan Stanley seconds earlier to create the goal. Winnipeg challenged for goalie interference, arguing Hyman had impeded Hellebuyck on the play, but the goal was upheld after a quick review, which meant the Jets were given a delay of game penalty.

They killed it off, only to take another when Wheeler accidentally flipped a puck into the seats from his own zone. The Jets survived that one as well, but they couldn’t avoid losing their captain to an undisclosed injury by the end of the period. Wheeler was clipped by a high-stick from Pierre Engvall and was on the ensuing power play late in the first period, but he was nowhere to be seen when the second period began, and was ruled out for the remainder.

“I don’t know is the answer to be 100 per cent sure. It wasn’t off the high stick. Just wasn’t feeling right so we wanted to be careful with it,” Maurice said of what was ailing Wheeler. “We’ll get it looked at and have something for you in the next couple of days. Truly, I don’t know. He may be back on the ice full-on the next game. It’s not COVID-related. We just wanted to be real careful with him, and he may be back and never miss a shift again. So it’s wide open right now.”

That forced the Jets to play with just 11 forwards the rest of the way.

“Obviously he’s the leader of our team, he’s the heartbeat of this team. He’s been in this organization for a long time. Aside from his obvious talents and what he does for us on the ice, he’s the heartbeat of our team. Not having him out there is tough and it sucks,” said defenceman Josh Morrissey.

There was more pain to come, as T.J Brodie caught Stastny with a high stick late in the second period, sending a tooth or two falling to the ice which led to a double-minor. Winnipeg had a golden opportunity staring them in their bloodied faces, but that quickly evaporated when an offensive zone breakdown led to a Alex Kerfoot shorthanded breakaway which made it 3-0 at 16:40.

“That one really hurt,” said Maurice,

Morrissey got the Jets on the board 35 seconds later, his point shot going through a screen, but that’s as close as the Jets would get.

“We looked good in the second, but you could see signs that we were having a hard time getting a handle on some pucks. Just behind it a little bit. And it was a bit of a sloppy game for both teams in terms of executions. They were having a hard time getting a handle on that puck. There was nothing in that game that made me feel we were way off, but we weren’t as good as we’ve been,” said Maurice.

Campbell ended with 26 saves to improve to 7-0-0 on the season. Hellebuyck made 23 stops.

After the Maple Leafs leave town, Vancouver is set to arrive for a pair of games on Sunday and Tuesday, but those are potentially in doubt after Wednesday’s game between the Canucks and Calgary Flames was postponed shortly before puck drop due to COVID-19 concerns with two players and a coach going into protocol.

“I asked Kevin (Cheveldayoff) after the game, and it’s one of these situations that evolves, and I don’t think the answer to that question (comes) overnight either, if it affects games. I don’t have an answer for you, and I don’t think anyone does right now,” said Maurice.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg