Preview: Panthers at Maple Leafs

PANTHERS (8-7-1) at MAPLE LEAFS (7-6-3)
7:30 p.m. ET; TSN4, FS-F, NHL.TV

Panthers team scope

Florida Panthers goalie James Reimer, who spent six seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs before he was traded to the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 27, will make his first career start against the Maple Leafs. "Obviously, the first time there's a lot of emotion playing against them," said Reimer, who signed a five-year contract with the Panthers as an unrestricted free agent this offseason. "Even still, the last couple of days, just walking around the city, you still remember a lot of the good times and [I] had some really good memories." Reimer, who was selected by Toronto in the 2006 NHL Draft (No. 99), is 2-2-1 with a 2.73 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage in six games this season. The Panthers are looking for a season-high third straight win and are coming off a 4-3 overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

Maple Leafs team scope

Centers Auston Matthews and Tyler Bozak missed the morning skate, but each will be in the lineup. "They were good enough to eat, they were good enough to be in the meetings so they can't be that bad," coach Mike Babcock said, when asked if they were feeling under the weather. Matthews is without a goal in his past 10 games and has two assists in that span. Defenseman Connor Carrick will return to the lineup after sitting out the past two games. "The big thing for him is he's not a huge man but he's an elite skater with a great brain and so he's got to do more with his stick... and just use his skill set," Babcock said. The Maple Leafs have won five of their past seven games (5-2-0) and are coming off a 6-2 win against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. Toronto is 6-2-0 at Air Canada Centre.

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- Aleksander Barkov -- Jaromir Jagr
Jussi Jokinen -- Vincent Trocheck -- Reilly Smith
Seth Griffith -- Denis Malgin -- Colton Sceviour
Greg McKegg -- Derek MacKenzie -- Kyle Rau
Keith Yandle -- Jason Demers
Mark Pysyk -- Aaron Ekblad
Mike Matheson -- Alexander Petrovic
James Reimer
Roberto Luongo
Scratched:Jared McCann, Shawn Thornton, Dylan McIlrath
Injured:Nick Bjugstad (upper-body), Jonathan Huberdeau (lower-body)

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Leo Komarov -- Nazem Kadri -- Connor Brown
James van Riemsdyk -- Tyler Bozak -- Mitchell Marner
Zach Hyman -- Auston Matthews -- William Nylander
Matt Martin -- Ben Smith -- Nikita Soshnikov
Morgan Rielly -- Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner -- Connor Carrick
Matt Hunwick -- Roman Polak
Frederik Andersen
Jhonas Enroth
Scratched:Peter Holland, Martin Marincin, Frank Corrado
Injured:None

Status report

Bjugstad, who has missed all 16 games this season, is getting closer to making his season debut. "Bjugstad should be back next week," Florida coach Gerard Gallant said. ... Griffith will play his first game against the Maple Leafs since he was claimed off waivers on Saturday. "It was up and down," Griffith said of his time in Toronto. "It's a good group of guys over there." ... He was a healthy scratch. Martin Marincin will be a healthy scratch on Thursday.

Who's hot

Malgin has four goals and six points in his past eight games. ... Yandle has six assists in his past eight games. ... Marner has five goals and nine points in his past six games.