Leafs dressing the goon squad tonight against the Jets; Abruzzese's NHL debut will have to wait
It would appear as thought the Leafs are preparing for a grudge match against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, as the team has announced that they will forego having rookie forward Nick Abruzzese making his debut and will also be scratching Colin Blackwell in favour of dressing Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds.
The last time these two teams faced off, Jets defenseman Neal Pionk took a run at Leafs defender Rasmus Sandin, causing a knee injury to the young Swede, prompting a retaliatory hit from Jason Spezza on Pionk. Both Spezza and Pionk were suspended as a result, with Spezza getting the worst of it, being slapped with a 6-game suspension.
Spezza will be flanked by Clifford and Simmonds tonight, so it's highly unlikely that he'll have to do any of the dirty work. Clifford did drop the gloves with Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon last time around, but Simmonds was issued 18 minutes worth of penalties and was basically handcuffed by the officials all night.
The Leafs will likely see a lot of Logan Stanley and Pierre-Luc Dubois on the ice with Neal Pionk this evening in an attempt to limit any dust-ups with the defenseman in retaliation to the events of December 5th. The Leafs lost that meeting by a score of 6-3, so they'll certainly be looking for a better result tonight.
| POLL | ||
MARS 31 | 414 ANSWERS Leafs dressing the goon squad tonight against the Jets; Abruzzese's NHL debut will have to wait How many penalty minutes will be issued in tonight's Leafs/Jets game? | ||
| 0-10 | 66 | 15.9 % |
| 11-20 | 119 | 28.7 % |
| 21-49 | 155 | 37.4 % |
| 50+ | 74 | 17.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
