Toronto Maple Leafs Welcome Atlanta Thrashers

The Toronto Maple Leafs return home after losing two of their last three games on the road. They host  “Hot-lanta” today as Dustin Byfuglien and his Thrash come to town. The Thrashers wrapped up a 7-1 spanking of the New Jersey Devils Saturday afternoon and look to continue their “spanking ways” against the Leafs.

Here are the projected lineups for the Leafs:

First Line: Clarke MacArthur – Mikhail Grabovski – Nikolai Kulemin

Second Line: Kris Versteeg – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel

Third Line: Fredrick Sjostrom – Tim Brent – Colby Armstrong

Fourth Line: Brett Lebda- John Mitchell – Colton Orr

D Pair No. 1: Francois Beauchemin – Dion Phaneuf

D Pair No. 2: Tomas Kaberle – Luke Schenn

D Pair No. 3: Carl Gunnarsson – Mike Komisarek

Goalies: Jonas Gustavsson – James RiemerHealthy

Scratch: Nazem Kadri

Injured: Mike Brown, Jean-Sebastien Giguere

The intense line juggling continues for Ron Wilson and the Leafs as Brett Ledba will play as a forward tonight on the fourth line. Nazem Kadri will be a healthy scratch for the second straight game. Wilson said he does not want to demote Kadri to the minors, he said he wanted to work with Nazem at practice to build strength off the ice.

The Maple Leafs first line of MacArthur, Kulemin and Grabovski have impressed all season long. If the Leafs are going to win tonight, they will need a decent amount of offensive production from their second line of Kessel, Bozak and Versteeg.

Maple Leafs forward Colby Armstrong will face his former team for the first time ever since joining the Leafs.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere is reportedly out indefinitely with a groin injury. He will meet with a specialist over the next few days to determine the severity of his injury.

Here are the projected lineups for the Atlanta Thrashers tonight:

First Line: Andrew Ladd – Rich Peverley – Nikolai Antroov

Second Line: Evander Kane – Bryan Little – Anthony Stewart

Third Line: Tim Stapelton – Alex Burmistrov – Fredrick Modin

Fourth Line: Eric Boulton – Jim Slater – Chris Thorburn

D Pair No. 1: Dustin Byfuglien – Tobias Enstrom

D Pair No. 2: Zach Bogosian – Johnny Oduya

D Pair No. 3: Ron Hainsey – Brent Sopel

Goalies: Ondrej Pavelec – Chris Mason

Not in the Lineup: Ben Eager, Niclas Bergfors

Tharshers goalie Ondrej Pavelec has played great ever since he returned from his concussion injury while Thrashers defenseman Dustin Byfuglien leads the league in scoring for a defenseman with 33 points. The Tharshers sit 5th in the eastern conference, 16 points ahead of the 13th place Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Thrashers roster consists of three former Leafs (Modin, Antropov, Stapelton) and four former Blackhawks (Ladd, Byfuglien, Sopel, Eager). The Thrashers have done a great job feeding of other teams players.

What are your predictions for the game? I predict the Leafs will squeeze out a win, 4-3 in overtime.

Follow me on Twitter: @SH_Leafs