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Wednesday, 02 March 2011 06:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Maple Leafs.

When and where: 7 p.m., Air Canada Centre.

TV: FSN Pittsburgh, Versus, TSN, RIS.

Record: 27-27-9, 63 points. The Maple Leafs are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference and fourth place in the Northeast Division.

Leading Scorer: Clarke MacArthur (right), 48 points (19 goals, 29 assists).

Last Game: 3-2 road overtime loss to the Thrashers, Sunday. Jean-Sebastien-Giguere made 22 saves for the Maple Leafs.

Last Game against the Penguins: 6-5 home shootout loss, Saturday. Mark Letestu had a goal and an assist in regulation for the Penguins.

Maple Leafs Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: How do you go against Joffrey Lupul? He had two regulation goals Saturday and has 17 points in 17 career games against the Penguins.

Ex-Penguins on the Maple Leafs: Colby Armstrong, RW; Tim Brent, C.

Ex-Maple Leafs on the Penguins: Tom Fitzgerald, assistant to the general manager.

Useless Maple Leafs Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: The last Canadian-born player to lead the Maple Leafs in scoring for a single-season was former Penguins forward Gary Roberts. He had 29 goals in 2000-01.

Best Maple Leafs Video We Could Find: If you can believe it, former Maple Leafs cement-head Tie Domi once scored a beautiful breakaway goal by stripping former Penguins defenseman Andrew Ference of the puck and burning goaltender Johan Hedberg on the backhand:

Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (28-16-4, 2.36 GAA, .918 SV%) for the Penguins and James Reimer (10-4-3, 2.31 GAA, .929 SV%) for the Maple Leafs.

Injuries: For the Penguins, goaltender Brent Johnson ("lower body") and forward Tyler Kennedy ("lower body") are day to day. Forwards Arron Asham (concussion), Mike Comrie (hip), Sidney Crosby (concussion), Nick Johnson (concussion), Chris Kunitz ("lower body"), Mark Letestu (knee), Evgeni Malkin (knee), Eric Tangradi (concussion) and defenseman Brooks Orpik (finger) are on injured reserve. For the Maple Leafs, forward Colton Orr (concussion) is on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' primary lines and defensive pairings in practice yesterday were:

James Neal - Mark Letestu - Alex Kovalev
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Dustin Jeffrey - Maxime Talbot - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Chris Conner

-The Maple Leafs' primary lines and defensive pairings in practice yesterday were:

Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Joffrey Lupul - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Colby Armstrong - Darryl Boyce - Mike Brown
Jay Rosehill - Tim Brent - Fredrik Sjostrom/Joey Crabb

Dion Phaneuf - Keith Aulie
Carl Gunnarsson - Luke Schenn
Brett Lebda - Mike Komisarek

Notes:

-Eric Godard is serving a suspension.

-To say the least, not too many people - including Mark Letestu - expected Letestu to ever be the Penguins to center.

-Kunitz is still waiting to come back to the lineup.

-Michalek has 99 career assists.

-Kovalev has 348 career points with the Penguins.

-Cooke has 298 career points.

-Letang has 96 career assists.

-Our live blog begins at approximately 7 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Paul Bereswill/Getty Images)

Comments (5)

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written by Boom Shaka, March 02, 2011 - 09:10 AM

Here's to hoping Point # 100 comes tonight on his first goal as a Penguin!

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written by Bones, March 02, 2011 - 10:21 AM

Ha, I actually remember seeing that Domi goal on Sportscenter.

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written by s_rorabaugh, March 02, 2011 - 10:36 AM

Boom Shaka, It's actually 99th career assist. Sorry.

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written by espo33, March 02, 2011 - 10:37 AM

Jeffrey is so much better at center. Here is hoping during the game he really takes the role as a centermen and taking the puck. Talbot is not a playmaker.

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written by Boom Shaka, March 02, 2011 - 02:34 PM

Still hope he gets his first goal tonight.

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