It is expected that the NHL will announce expansion of the league, presumably by two teams, at some point in the not so distant future. Markham and Quebec are the anticipated locations, with arenas being built, and an expansion draft to follow.

This was one of those hockey games that was absurdly memorable, except that it really wasn't. For two periods, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets fought to a total stalemate, a timid display of outside attempts that resulted in few shots, fewer scoring chances, and fewer Leafs fans in our nations more Eastern timezones even bothering to stay up until the end of the game.

The Leafs won 3-2, as Matt Frattin deflected in a Cody Franson shot with five minutes to go and Phil Kessel scored his first on the season on a powerplay less than a minute later. The late-game comeback doesn't particularly work in the storybook concept of the dull 55 minutes that preceded it. But that's what sports is, you'll have several stretches of inaction punctuated by bursts of elation and despair.

The only problem is if you attempt to objectively define players and teams based on those small bursts.

Penalties and power play opportunities have increased significantly. With the Leafs penalty kill falling into that familiar territory at the bottom, sitting 27th with a 71.9% rate, I wanted to look closer at what kinds of penalties were being called.

Needless to say, the far and away penalty called is five for fighting, where the Leafs rank tied for second overall in the NHL.

This first graph breaks down the Leafs penalty by position. Of note, not one high sticking penalty - one of four teams (TB, EDM, TOR, NSH).

One stat that wasn’t amassed was called twice on Mikhail Grabovski, Grbovski - Delay of Game - faceoff violation. Tyler Bozak was called for Delay of Game – puck over glass.

There were five seasons when the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs shared a division. From 1980 to 1982, they were both part of the Campbell Conference's Norris Division. In 1995 and 1996, both teams belonged to the Central Division in the Western Conference.

Not the current version of the Jets, mind you, although I believe the City of Winnipeg has a better claim to the history of the original Jets franchise, WHA and all, than the City of Glendale does. Some of the season ticket holders at tonight's game at the MTS Centre will be old-timers who once had season tickets to see Bobby Hull, Dale Hawerchuk and Teemu Selanne. For all the superstars the Jets had, the first run Jets between 1979 and 1996 were groups synonymous with regular season mediocrity, that often found itself one-and-done in the playoffs.