Monday’s FTB: The Leafs road trip ends with an ugly loss in Winnipeg

A week after the end of a great road trip in California, the Leafs have a bad one in the Central Division

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost 6-3 to the Winnipeg Jets last night in a game that turned ugly. The brief spark of life the Leafs put together on a double power play opportunity was snuffed out by the Jets before injuries and fighting took over the game. Our blow by blow recap of the game is here:

We’ll learn more about how bad Rasmus Sandin was injured last night by Pionk, though watching him be carried across the rink on the shoulders of his teammates (the Jets have one of those old arena designs where the visitors have to go to the other side of the ice to exit) all with a constant facial expression of “pain” gives you a good enough idea that he will be out of action for more that a few days.

This will be the second major injury this year for Sandin. He missed several weeks starting in February when a blocked a shot injured his foot in a game for the Marlies.

Speaking of the Marlies, they had Petr Mrázek in net last night as part of a conditioning stint in advance of his return to the Leafs. He said post-game that his groin “feels great” and that he was able to read the plays on the ice properly.

The Marlies lost the game 5-1.

The Leafs have little time to recover and sort things out. They have three home games this week:

• Tuesday vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets
• Thursday vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning
• Saturday vs. the Chicago Blackhawks

Other News

The Vancouver Canucks hit the reset button on the season and fired both coach Travis Greene and GM Jim Benning last night after a terrible start to the season has left them last place in the Pacific Division. The Canucks reportedly have hired Bruce Boudreau as the replacement. I say reportedly because everyone has reported it but the Canucks haven’t made an official announcement. Maybe they lost Greene in the building like his defence gets lost in their own zone?

IT’S OVER!!! The JB/TG Era Ends Today - Or Pretty Soon - Nucks Misconduct
Green Fired! (Westy Smiles Again) - JB/Weisbrod Fired! - NM Smiles Again

And if you want a quick summary of the Jim Benning era in Vancouver, this is a good one.

You’re probably used to hearing about Connor McDavid scoring in games to a point that he breaks NHL records. Well he decided to shake up the headlines a bit last night and instead get a game misconduct and ejection from a game.