Squaring off with nearly identical records entering Wednesday’s contest, the Toronto Maple Leafs were presented with a key opportunity to get out of a rut against a quality Minnesota Wild team, with a four-game road trip on the horizon before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing -- it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world's attention.

Jared Spurgeon and Marat Khusnutdinov scored in the first period, Filip Gustavsson stopped 31 shots, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1.

Morgan Rielly is used to contributing with the puck on his stick. The Maple Leafs defenceman had a career-high 68 points a couple of years back and chipped in another 58 last season as part of a well-oiled attack.

You can look to John Tavares and Matthew Knies’ imminent returns and hope they can spark the lineup, but this is still a team with Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner. Offence should not be this difficult and they have the raw talent to at least make games interesting. Tonight was far from it.

I feel good despite numbers,” said Rielly, who has five goals and 17 assists for 22 points in 51 contests. “It’s a battle right now. Just trying to compete and play the best I can.”

“It can be the most random time in the summer and no matter what, you’ll see 'RR' pop up on your phone,” Nick Robertson said. Every group chat needs an instigator; someone to keep the dialogue alive during low points. On and off the ice, Reaves fills that role.

Ryan Reaves and Mathieu Olivier dropped their gloves and engaged in a heavyweight fight just 92 seconds into Wednesday's game between the Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets. "It was great," said centre Auston Matthews.

Crag Berube was forced to shuffle the Leafs' lines at practice ahead of Wednesday's game against the Minnesota Wild with the imminent return of Max Pacioretty.

TORONTO - The return from injury of Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews ... said Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe, who scored his first goal of the season. "He (Matthews) was his normal ...

It’s often been said that the Toronto Maple Leafs are the passion that unites us all, and that’s starkly evident on an unseasonably warm Monday in January, ahead of the team’s annual outdoor practice.

It seems inevitable that the Canucks will end up with a franchise-changing trade in the coming weeks. Can the Leafs take advantage of it?