The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a nasty habit over the years of not burying clubs they should beat. No team in the NHL is easy to defeat, but the Winnipeg Jets of 2025-26 are not the club that 12 months ago were on their way to winning the President’s Trophy. The Jets entered their match with Toronto with the worst record in the NHL, losers of seven in a row, and a club that had not scored more than three goals since December 13.
On top of that, Winnipeg had played in Detroit on Wednesday with Connor Hellebuyck in goal, so the Leafs were getting a club playing their third game in four nights with backup Eric Comrie between the pipes.
Of course, what happened……the Jets broke out to a 4-1 lead early in the second period, chased Toronto starter Joseph Woll, and Comrie in the first half of the contest was making acrobatic saves that Carey Price would be proud of. The Leafs however, did not fold and rallied to tie the game twice before Auston Matthews scored his third goal of the night with 4:22 left to give Toronto a 6-5 win at Scotiabank Arena.
Matthews, who appeared sluggish to start the game after missing the 4-0 victory over New Jersey with a lower-body injury, found his footing in the second period, scoring a goal on a deflection of a Max Domi goal-mouth pass to narrow the lead to 2-1, and scored his second of the game on the power play with two seconds left in the middle frame to cut the Jets lead to 4-3.
Matias Maccelli tied the game early in the third, but Mark Scheifele quickly responded to restore the Winnipeg lead, but Toronto rallied once again, tying the game on a Troy Stecher goal and pulling ahead for good on Matthews hat-trick tally thanks to an excellent hustle play by Easton Cowan that forced a Comrie faux pas.
Dennis Hildeby made 22 saves in relief of Woll for the victory, with the best being a sprawling stop on Scheifele in the waning seconds to preserve the win for Toronto, who have moved to within two points of an Eastern Conference wildcard spot with their fourth win in five games.
Here are a few thoughts on the game:
Morgan Rielly and Philippe Myers should never play together again. Rielly remains a good offensive defenseman, but is challenged defensively and needs a solid stay-at-home defender playing alongside him. Myers has firmly established this season that he is not a competent NHL blueliner, and that was displayed on the Alex Iafallo goal where he gave away the puck and teed it up for the Jets forward, and on the Scheifele tally, where he left the front of the net unguarded and chased a Winnipeg player who was already covered.
The Leafs incredible comeback cannot camouflage the fact that Myers has been horrific, and perhaps Craig Berube finally recognized that, as Stecher played with Rielly frequently after the fourth Winnipeg goal. Brandon Carlo reportedly is close to returning to the lineup, which hopefully means he will resume his spot playing on the right side with Rielly, allowing Stecher to play with Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson to play with Simon Benoit, and Myers to take his rightful place eating popcorn in the press box.
The likely return of William Nylander in the next game or two will necessitate a change in the Leafs lines, but based on their successful play, Berube should not toy with changing up the top line of McMann, Matthews, and Domi, or the third line of Nick Robertson, Nicolas Roy, and Easton Cowan. The player likely to come out of the lineup is Calle Jarnkrok, giving the Leafs a very good second unit of Matthew Knies, John Tavares and Nylander, but Maccelli moving to the fourth line with Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton does not feel like a good fit.
Maccelli scored an impressive tying goal in the third, but his positive moments this season have been few and far between.
In goal, it is tough to blame Woll for any of the four Winnipeg goals, and he was more a victim of shoddy Toronto play in their own end. Hildeby gave the Leafs an excellent performance out of the bullpen, which might earn him a start in the game on Long Island on Saturday.
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