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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 15:47

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Maple Leafs.

When and where: 7:30 p.m., EST. Air Canada Center.

TV: Root Sports, TSN, RDSI.

Record: 25-19-6, 56 points. The Maple Leafs are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference and third place in the Northeast Division.

Leading Scorer: Joffrey Lupul, 52 points (20 goals, 32 assists).

Last Game: 5-4 shootout road loss to the Penguins, last night. Steve Sullivan had a goal and an assist for the Penguins.

Last Game against the Penguins: Ditto.

Maple Leafs Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: MacArthur. He has six points in his last four games against the Penguins.

Ex-Penguins on the Maple Leafs: Colby Armstrong (above), RW.

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

Useless Maple Leafs Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Former Penguins forward and coach Ed Olczyk holds the Maple Leafs' franchise record for longest scoring streak. He scored in 16 consecutive games during the 1989-90 season.

Best Maple Leafs Video We Could Find: Former Maple Leafs captain Doug Gilmour kept his dandruff in check:

Probable goaltenders: Brent Johnson (2-5-2, 3.47 GAA, .876 SV%) for the Penguins and James Reimer (7-5-4, 3.01 GAA, .899 SV%) for the Maple Leafs.

Injuries: For the Penguins, right winger Arron Asham (head) is out. Centers Sidney Crosby (head/neck), Jordan Staal (knee) and defensemen Simon Despres (knee) are on injured reserve. For the Maple Leafs, left winger Darryl Boyce (back) is doubtful.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' did not skate today. Their primary lines and defensive pairings last night were:

Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Colin McDonald - Joe Vitale - Colin McDonald

Brook Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Deryk Engelland Ben Lovejoy

(Lovejoy is expected to replace Engelland in the lineup.)

-Based on the Maple Leafs primary lines and defensive pairings last night and the return of Armstrong and defenseman John-Michael Liles, consider this a guess:

Joffrey Lupul - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Matthew Lombardi - Tim Connelly - Colby Armstrong
Joey Crabb - David Steckel - Mike Brown

Dion Phaneuf - Gunnarsson
John-Michael Liles - Cody Franson
Jake Gardiner - Luke Schenn

Notes:

-The last time the Penguins played the Maple Leafs, this happened:

-The Penguins claim Cal O'Reilly off waivers from the Coyotes.

-With Armstrong and Liles returning to the lineup, the Maple Leafs demoted defenseman Keith Aulie and right winger Nazem Kadri.

-Dupuis has appeared in 299 career games with the Penguins.

-Park has scored 99 career goals.

-Kennedy has 146 career points.

-Our live blog begins at approximately 7:15 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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