Leafs dealing with illness, winless streak

TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have more than a four-game winless streak and the New Jersey Devils to contend with Sunday at Air Canada Centre. They're also battling illness.

According to Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle, forwards Tyler Bozak and Jerry D'Amigo, defensemen Mark Fraser and Tim Gleason, and goalie James Reimer all missed the morning skate with some kind of sickness.

"There's either a flu bug or food poisoning," Carlyle said. "There's just too many of them under the weather and having the same symptoms. We don't quite have a finger on exactly what it is. We think that there's people that weren't skating this morning that will be available to us tonight."

The Maple Leafs need a win and come off a 3-2 loss against the Washington Capitals on Thursday. They're hoping they can build off the things they did right in that game.

"There's always going to be pressure," forward Joffrey Lupul said. "Certainly you don't want to fall too far out of the playoff race. Honestly, right now we feel a little bit better about ourselves than we have the past couple games. We think we've put some good periods together. But again, it's all about wins and losses, so we've got to find a way to get a win tonight."

Toronto has allowed 21 goals during its winless streak. Since Jonathan Bernier was the only goalie on the ice for the morning skate, it's expected he'll get the start against New Jersey.

The Devils held an optional skate in which only forwards Cam Janssen, Jacob Josefson and Andrei Loktionov participated with goalie Martin Brodeur. Those three forwards are expected to be scratches against the Maple Leafs and they'll play seven defensemen.

Devils coach Pete DeBoer announced after the Devils' 2-1 overtime win against the Florida Panthers on Saturday that Cory Schneider would start against Toronto. Schneider will make his third straight start and has allowed one goal in his past two games.

As for the lineups, here's how they may look:

MAPLE LEAFS

James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel

Mason Raymond – Nazem Kadri – Joffrey Lupul

Nikolai Kulemin – Jay McClement – David Clarkson

Jerry D'Amigo – Carter Ashton – Colton Orr

Carl Gunnarsson – Dion Phaneuf

Tim Gleason – Cody Franson

Jake Gardiner – Morgan Rielly

Jonathan Bernier

James Reimer

Scratched: Paul Ranger, Frazer McLaren, Mark Fraser

Injured: Dave Bolland (IR – cut tendon), Trevor Smith (IR – broken arm)

DEVILS

Dainius Zubrus – Travis Zajac – Jaromir Jagr

Ryane Clowe – Adam Henrique – Michael Ryder

Ryan Carter – Stephen Gionta – Steve Bernier

Reid Boucher – Mike Sislo – Eric Gelinas (D)

Andy Greene – Mark Fayne

Bryce Salvador – Anton Volchenkov

Jon Merrill – Marek Zidlicky

Cory Schneider

Martin Brodeur

Scratched: Andrei Loktionov, Cam Janssen, Jacob Josefson

Injured: Patrik Elias (IR – body), Damien Brunner (IR – knee), Peter Harrold (IR – foot)