Scheifele shines against Leafs

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This article was published 23/12/2024 (288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Never mind the words he spoke more than three years ago, it was the actions of Mark Scheifele on the ice on this December afternoon that people will be talking about for the foreseeable future.

The Winnipeg Jets top centre had a game for the ages, notching his 10th career hat trick and adding an assist as his team cruised to a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday before plenty of friends and family members at Scotiabank Arena.

Just one day earlier, Scheifele was reminded the Jets hadn’t won in six meetings with the Maple Leafs since he asked during a post-game celebration in the dressing room that aired on the team’s social media account: “Is there anything better than beating the Leafs?”

Scheifele wasn’t accidentally handing out bulletin-board material after this game, but he gave folks in attendance or watching elsewhere plenty to talk about with this virtuoso performance.

Scheifele had five shots on goal, nine shot attempts and his pass to Kyle Connor on a two-on-one rush for his second goal of the contest was a thing of beauty.

“Oh, yeah. Obviously, I know how much it means for him to come in here. He’s just a local kid that wants to do well,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “That whole line, I thought they did lots of good things and yeah, for Scheif, that will make for a nice Christmas present.”

The Jets were eager to return the favour to the Maple Leafs after they snapped their season-opening eight-game winning streak in late October.

“We were excited to get another crack at them and show them the game that we can play,” said Scheifele. “All in all, it’s a big win for us and that’s pretty much it.”

Several hats were tossed onto the ice when Scheifele sealed the game with his empty-netter with 20.9 seconds to go.

“I was hoping I was going to see a couple right away,” said Scheifele. “Maybe the Jets fans couldn’t get the seats closer to the ice.”

Since it was his first time in Toronto since Canada named its 4 Nations Face-Off roster, Scheifele was asked about being left off the team and he gave a diplomatic answer — saying he was disappointed but just wants to play well for the Jets and control what he can control.

Connor, his longtime linemate, was also asked whether or not Scheifele has been playing with additional motivation since the announcement.

“Whether it is or not, his play has been great all year. He’ll be on that Olympic team, I’ve got no doubts,” said Connor, who had a four-point effort of his own with two goals and two assists. “He’ll take this motivation and he’s the type of player that can ramp it up like that. It’s too bad he didn’t make the team, but it is what it is. Obviously you’ve seen what he’s done since.”

The Jets enter the holiday break with a record of 25-10-1 and 51 points, which is tops in the NHL.

“Well, it’s a good start. It’s a race,” said Arniel. “Obviously you’ve got to get out of the gate good and we did. Now you’re hitting close to that halfway mark, Christmas break, obviously we’re really happy with our accomplishment but there’s a lot of games to go.

“We’ll have a couple of days to recognize what we’ve done and then we’ll turn the page and move on.”

The Jets are back in action on Saturday when they host the Ottawa Senators.

Let’s take a closer look at this one.

DISHING CLINIC – Along with the one Scheifele made to Connor for the backhand redirection, there were several other beautiful passes made by the Jets that led to goals, including a backhand saucer from Gabe Vilardi to Scheifele that made it a 3-1 game early in the second period.

Josh Morrissey also found Scheifele alone with a backhand pass in the third period and while Joseph Woll made the initial save, Scheifele stuck with it and somehow poked the puck across the goal line.

“Yeah, I saw it from where I was that it was just under his skate blade,” said Scheifele. “That’s kind of why I kept fighting and I really don’t know how it ended up in the net but… you don’t ask.”

With Scheifele and Connor each scoring their 21st goals on Monday, the Jets became the first team with a pair of 20-goal scorers — an impressive number through 36 games — and the third member of the line (Vilardi) already has 14.

“It’s one area where we’ve kind of had it spread out a little bit there. We’ve got contributions from everybody. But when your top guys can do that, it gets the opposition on their heels a little bit,” said Arniel. “They have to be aware of when they’re on the ice at all times. And when you can go out on the road and your top line can do that, it certainly leads to lots of success.”

THE INJURY – The Jets lost D-man Haydn Fleury in the final minute of the second period after he appeared to suffer a knee injury.

Fleury, who has stepped into a role on the second pairing with Dylan Samberg sidelined with a broken foot, was engaged with a Maple Leafs player in the corner of the defensive zone when his right knee buckled after it appeared his skate might have been caught in a rut.

With Fleury out, the Jets were left to play the third period with five blue-liners — which meant the minutes went up for everyone and the pairings were a bit jumbled.

“At the end of the day, they just dug in and we put a lot of emphasis on our forwards to do the work to help our D-men, don’t put them in situations where they get stuck in their end,” said Arniel. “At the end of the day, we did a pretty good job managing that puck in the third.”

Following the game, Arniel said that Fleury is officially day-to-day. He will be re-evaluated after the holiday break.

“We’ll see how he is when we get home,” said Arniel. “Just kind of tweaked the lower body there.”

THE KEY PLAY – Vilardi’s beautiful backhand pass to Scheifele at 3:27 of the third period restored a two-goal cushion and proved to be the game-winner.

THE THREE STARS

• Mark Scheifele, Jets – Three goals, one assist.
• Kyle Connor, Jets – Two goals, two assists.
• Josh Morrissey, Jets – Two assists, 25:13 of ice time.

EXTRA, EXTRA – Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves as he recorded his league-leading 22nd victory in his 28th start of the campaign.

David Gustafsson was in the lineup as the fourth-line centre for a second consecutive game, bringing him up to five for the season. That left Rasmus Kupari as a healthy scratch.

Defenceman Simon Lundmark was recalled as insurance from the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League but was scratched, so he’ll continue to wait to make his NHL debut.

If Fleury (lower body) is unable to go in the next game, and if Logan Stanley isn’t ready to return from a foot injury that has kept him out of the past two games, then either Lundmark will stay up or Dylan Coghlan could be recalled from the Moose after suiting up in a pair of AHL games over the weekend.

The Maple Leafs were without defenceman Chris Tanev, as the former Moose blue-liner sat out with a lower-body injury after taking the warmup. Auston Matthews also missed a second game in a row with an undisclosed ailment.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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