GDT: Game #36, Toronto Maple Leafs vs Florida Panthers (5 p.m., SNO)

This will be the third week in a row with a Sunday game for the Maple Leafs, something we should probably get used to as Rogers pushes their new Hometown Hockey Sunday night program (with poor ratings results for non-Leaf games, so far).

In terms of lineup news, Christopher Gibson has been recalled to play backup to James Reimer as Jonathan Bernier is suffering from the flu and can’t go.

The Leafs also placed Leo Komarov on the 7-day injured reserve to make space for the Gibson recall, which means Komarov is still a minimum of a week away from returning. He participated in his full practice yesterday but has not been cleared for contact.

The Panthers are a bit of a sleeper in the East in the early going; they haven’t been able to score consistently (26th in GF/G), but there’s some youth and potential on the team and a number of names on the Florida roster one would expect to pick up their offensive games as the season goes along. They’re hanging around the wildcard picture (a few points back with several games in hand), getting great goaltending from Roberto Luongo and currently sit top 10 in goals against per game and Corsi For Percentage.

The Panthers have played a remarkable 13 games that have taken overtime or shootout to decide. Needless to say, they’ve played in a lot of tight games this season, and if they can squeeze more production out of their lineup they might be able to really surprise as we enter the second half of the schedule. They’re controlling possession in most of their games and playing well defensively, allowing the sixth fewest shot attempts against per 60 in the league at 5v5.

The Leafs were outplayed by this Panthers team in the season series last season, dropping three of four by a combined score of 14-9.

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup

Joffrey Lupul – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel
(8-6-14) – (13-15-28) – (17-21-38) (38G, 80PTS TOT)
James van Riemsdyk – Nazem Kadri – Mike Santorelli
(15-17-32) – (10-12-22) – (7-16-23) (32G, 77PTS TOT)
Daniel Winnik – Peter Holland – David Clarkson
(1-13-14) – (8-7-15) – (9-3-12) (18G, 41PTS TOT)
David Booth – Trevor Smith – Richard Panik
(1-1-2) – (0-2-2) – (6-1-7) (7G, 11PTS TOT)

Dion Phaneuf – Cody Franson
(2-16-18) – (5-16-21) (7G, 39PTS TOT)
Jake Gardiner – Roman Polak
(2-6-8) – (3-2-5) (5G, 13PTS TOT)
Morgan Reilly – Stephane Robidas
(4-7-11) – (0-5-5) (4G, 16PTS TOT)

James Reimer
(6-4-0, .921SV%, 3.26GAA)
Christopher Gibson

Scratched: Korbinian Holzer
Injured: Leo Komarov (concussion)

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Florida Panthers Projected Lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nick Bjugstad – Vincent Trocheck
(3-10-13) – (12-7-19) – (3-9-12) (18g, 44pts TOT)
Sean Bergenheim – Aleksander Barkov – Brandon Pirri
(5-6-11) – (2-3-5) – (3-1-4) (10G, 20PTS TOT)
Jussi Jokinen – Dave Bolland – Jimmy Hayes
(4-13-17) – (0-3-3) – (9-6-15) (13G, 35 PTS TOT)
Tomas Kopecky – Derek MacKenzie – Scottie Upshall
(1-4-5) – (3-2-5) – (4-5-9) (8G, 19PTS TOT)

Brian Campbell – Aaron Ekblad
(1-7-8) – (5-14-19) (6G, 27PTS TOT)
Willie Mitchell – Dmitry Kulikov
(1-1-2) – (0-9-9) (1G, 11PTS TOT)
Erik Gudbranson – Dylan Olsen
(1-4-5) – (1-5-6) (2G, 11PTS TOT)

Roberto Luongo
(13-7-6, .924SV%, 2.30GAA)
Al Montoya

Scratched: Tomas Fleischmann, Brad Boyes
Injured: Shawn Thornton (groin)

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Florida Panthers - Head to Head

Randy Carlyle – pre-game