The (24-24-6) Winnipeg Jets host the (28-19-6) Toronto Maple Leafs at MTS Centre tonight in the fourth and final regular season game between these two teams.
TSN 1290's coverage begins with Hustler & Lawless live from the Exchange Restaurant inside MTS Centre at 4:00. Rick Ralph hosts the official Jets pregame show at 6:30. Color Analyst Shane Hnidy joins me in the broadcast booth for the play-by-play at 7:30.
The big news for the Jets is leading goal scorer Evander Kane returns to action after missing the last seven games due to a concussion.
Tim Stapleton, who has also missed the last seven games, will not play. However, he did take part in the pre-game skate and is hopeful to play Thursday in Washington.
Kane's return is big for Winnipeg, who are 0-15 in their last six games on the power play.
Ondrej Pavelec will start in goal.
Jets Projected Lines:
Ladd-Little-Wheeler
Kane-Antropov-Wellwood
Glass-Slater-Thorburn
Gagnon-Burmistrov-Miettinen
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Hainsey-Bogosian
Oduya-Stuart
The Leafs did not skate this morning in Winnipeg following last night's 6-3 win in Toronto against Edmonton.
Toronto enters the game winners of three in a row.
Mikhail Grabovski is on a six-game point streak (three goals and nine assists).
Clarke MacArthur is on a five-game point streak (five goals and four assists).
Phil Kessel (three goals and three assists), Tyler Bozak (two goals and two assists), Joffrey Lupul (one goal and two assists), Dion Phaneuf (one goal and two assists) and Jake Gardiner (one goal and one assist) all have points in their last two games.
Kessel leads the Leafs with three goals and two assists for five points in three games against the Jets this season. Winnipeg is 1-1-1 against Toronto.
Interesting note from TSN Jets' Dennis Beyak; the last team to score a power-play goal against Toronto was the Jets, on New Year's Eve.
By the way, after playing two games, the Jets re-assigned forward Spencer Machacek to the St. John's IceCaps.
