Maple Leafs at Hurricanes preview

MAPLE LEAFS (14-8-1) at HURRICANES (9-7-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; TSN4, FS-CR, NHL.TV

Forward Matt Martin will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season as the Maple Leafs look for more offense. Toronto lost 2-1 in a shootout at the Florida Panthers on Wednesday and 4-1 at home to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.
Goaltender Cam Ward will start for the Hurricanes, who will try to bounce back from a 6-1 home loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday. The Hurricanes were 5-1-1 prior to that loss. Center Victor Rask will return to the lineup after two games as a healthy scratch.

Players to watch

Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri has an eight-game point streak (five goals, four assists).
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has scored a goal in each of the past five games.

They said it

"I don't control the matchups on the road, so I can't get mismatched in any situation with (Patrick Marleau) at center. He can play against anybody. I don't know if he would score as much if we played him in the middle all the time, and I want him to score and put the heat on defensemen. His speed is so good, you would like to use that. So that's the negative side [to playing center]." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock
"I didn't like a whole bunch of our game in the 6-1 (loss to Rangers). You can start from the goaltender on out and try to find three guys that you're happy with or who played well, and I don't think you can do it." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Zach Hyman -- Auston Matthews -- Mitchell Marner
Leo Komarov -- Nazem Kadri --
Nikita Soshnikov
James van Riemsdyk -- Tyler Bozak -- William Nylander
Josh Leivo -- Patrick Marleau -- Connor Brown
Morgan Rielly -- Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner -- Nikita Zaitsev
Andreas Borgman -- Connor Carrick
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:Matt Martin, Dominic Moore, Roman Polak
Injured: None

Hurricanes projected lineup

Sebastian Aho -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Victor Rask -- Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner -- Derek Ryan -- Justin Williams
Joakim Nordstrom -- Marcus Kruger -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched:Josh Jooris, Klas Dahlbeck
Injured: Lee Stempniak (lower body)

Status report

The Maple Leafs will complete a back-to-back set at home against the Washington Capitals on Saturday. … The Hurricanes are playing the third game of a four-game homestand that ends Sunday against the Nashville Predators.

Stat pack

Van Riemsdyk has five goals in his past six games. … Teravainen has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in the past five games.