Looking to bounce back from a tough loss three nights ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs visit famous Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Rangers.
This is the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. Last year, the Rangers dominated the season series, going undefeated in regulation with a 3-0-1 record. The last meeting was a 7-0 loss for the Leafs in New York on Jan. 19 in which Jonas Gustavsson stopped just 19 of 25 shots. It was the last start of the season for The Monster before undergoing a minor heart ablation procedure and spending time with the Toronto Marlies.
The Leafs are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night in which Jaromir Jagr led the way with two goals and an assist. The two Toronto goals came from David Steckel who has a three-game goal streak going, and Phil Kessel for his league-leading ninth of the season.
Toronto will get some more help offensively as Tim Connolly is set to make his regular season debut. Connolly has missed all eight of the Leafs' regular season games with an upper-body injury that was believed to be related to his shoulder. Connolly is expected to centre the top line between Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul.
In 34 career games against the Rangers, Connolly has just two goals and ten assists and a plus/minus rating of minus-four.
Also making his return from injury will be Tyler Bozak. The 25-year old centreman has been out since suffering a foot injury in last Thursday's game against the Boston Bruins. Before the injury, Bozak had registered four assists in six games.
One player who will not be making a return is James Reimer, who remains out with whiplash type symptoms from a collision with Montreal Canadiens captain Brian Gionta on Saturday.
Reimer did not take part in Toronto's morning skate on Thursday. Afterwards Jonas Gustavsson mentioned the word concussion when discussing Reimer's absence from the lineup. Head coach Ron Wilson denied this however, saying that Reimer underwent tests but is just being kept out as a precaution because of the hit to the head.
Gustavsson will get the start in net looking to redeem himself after getting shelled for seven goals in his last start in The Big Apple. Set to back-up The Monster is Ben Scrivens who was recalled from the Marlies after posting a 5-0 shutout in a game against the Abbotsford Heat on Wednesday. In order to make room on the roster for Scrivens, the Leafs assigned Nazem Kadri to the Marlies.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
Joffrey Lupul - Tim Connolly - Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Matthew Lombardi - Tyler Bozak - Matt Frattin
Mike Brown - David Steckel - Philippe Dupuis
Defencemen
Carl Gunnarsson - Dion Phaneuf
Jake Gardiner - Luke Schenn
John-Michael Liles - Mike Komisarek
Goalies
Jonas Gustavsson
Ben Scrivens
Thursday's tilt at Madison Square Garden will mark the first home game of the season for the New York Rangers, the last team in the NHL to play their home opener. The Blueshirts opened up the season in Europe and headed to Western Canada for four games due to renovations to their home arena.
The Rangers return home with a 3-2-2 record and are coming off a 2-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. New York's goals came from Ruslan Fedotenko for his first of the season, and Ryan Callahan who picked up his second of the year.
Brad Richards will get to make his much anticipated home debut at MSG after signing a nine-year, $60 million deal with the Rangers in the off-season. The 31-year old Murray Harbour, PEI native is off to a decent start with a goal and four assists, tied with Fedotenko for tops in the team in assists and points.
In 30 career games against the Leafs, Richards has produced at a point-per-game pace with 16 goals and 14 assists for 30 points.
Just as the Leafs are getting some returnees to their lineup, as are the Rangers with the expected return of defenceman Michael Sauer. The 24-year old blue liner played the first two games of the season in Sweden before suffering a shoulder injury and missing the Rangers' western road trip. Sauer ranked fourth on the team in blocked shots last season with 96 in 76 games played. He also led all defencemen in penalty minutes with 75 during the season.
Henrik Lundqvist is expected to get the start in net on Thursday. Lundqvist was given the night off on Monday in Winnipeg after allowing two goals in a 2-0 shutout loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. In 17 career games against the Leafs, the 29-year old netminder is 9-4-4 with a 2.54 goals-against average and .911 save percentage with two shutouts.
New York Rangers Projected Lines - Subject to change.
Forwards
Ruslan Fedotenko - Brad Richards - Marian Gaborik
Brandon Dubinsky - Derek Stepan - Ryan Callahan
Wojtek Wolski - Brian Boyle - Brandon Prust
Kris Newbury - Artem Anisimov - Erik Christensen
Defencemen
Dan Girardi - Ryan McDonagh
Steve Eminger - Michael Sauer
Tim Erixon - Michael Del Zotto
Goalies
Henrik Lundqvist
Martin Biron
Leafs vs. Rangers gets underway at 7PM ET. The game will be broadcast on the NHL on TSN and AM640.
For up-to-the-minute Leafs news and updates, be sure to follow Ken Beckett on Twitter @KenBeckett
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