The Winnipeg Jets will try to start the new year by ending a seven-game losing streak when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.
The Jets finished 2025 on an 0-4-3 skid after their 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday in the opener of Winnipeg’s three-game road trip. Six of the past seven losses have been by one goal.
The Jets will face a rested Maple Leafs team that is coming off a 4-0 home win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
“It’s just frustrating when the results aren’t coming,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “We’ve got an opportunity here. I know we’re not at all close to where we want to be, or feel that we could be with the type of team that we have.”
Typical of how the season is going for the Jets came at 18:22 of the third period of their Wednesday game when their forward Gustav Nyquist clanked a shot off the post.
“At the end of the day, it’s such a fragile situation,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “You make a mistake, and we’re seeing what happens. That’s been kind of the story here, especially recently here, when we have been playing good hockey.
“We cannot change in the sense of how we’re playing and in the sense of how hard we’re playing, how hard we’re competing and the amount of opportunities that we’re getting. But, man oh man, we’ve got to find a way somehow. We’ll move off of 2025 and maybe in 2026, we can start scoring some goals.”
The Maple Leafs are not known to be a gritty team when the going gets tough, but they changed that narrative somewhat on Tuesday.
Toronto was without Auston Matthews and William Nylander because of lower-body injuries, Chris Tanev with a groin injury and Dakota Joshua with a kidney injury. But they beat the Devils with strong goaltending from Joseph Woll, who made 33 saves, and a goal and an assist each from Bobby McMann and Nicolas Roy.
“The determination right now and the attitude we have around here, I think the attitude has been really good, even before Christmas,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said Wednesday. “Things always don’t go your way, but the guys come the next day with a positive attitude, and we’re going to have to continue to do that. It’s going to be a dog fight in January. We know that, but I love the attitude we have right now.”
There was some bad news Wednesday, however. Tanev and Joshua will be out for a significant time.
Tanev has been limited to 11 games this season, and the defenseman’s ability to move the puck, his calm presence and toughness are missed when he is out of the lineup.
“You’re not going to replace that, but we have a lot of heart-and-soul guys in here,” Berube said. “Like last night’s game, guys just went out and did their job and checked, and everybody stepped it up a little. We’re going to have to continue to do the same thing.”
The news on Matthews was better.
“He had a good day today,” Berube said Wednesday. “Tomorrow, see how it feels in the morning. He’ll probably go on the ice and we’ll go from there.”
As for Nylander, Berube said: “We’ll see tomorrow if he is able to get on the ice.”
–Field Level Media
