Maple Leafs at Lightning preview

MAPLE LEAFS (39-20-5) at LIGHTNING (42-17-3)
7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SUN, SNO, NHL.TV

The Maple Leafs, 9-1-0 in their past 10 games and 13-2-0 in their past 15, is in second place in the Atlantic, four points behind the division-leading Lightning and one ahead of the Boston Bruins. Tampa Bay has two games in hand on Toronto and Boston has four.
Forward Tomas Plekanec will make his Maple Leafs debut after being acquired in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Rinat Valiev, forward Kerby Rychel and a second-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft on Sunday. Toronto has scored four goals or more in nine of its past 14 games.
The Lightning seek their fourth straight win; they are 11-5-0 in their past 16 games. Tampa Bay has the best record in the NHL and will play 10 of its next 11 games at home. The Lightning have scored four goals in four of their past five games.
Tampa Bay acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward J.T. Miller from the New York Rangers for forward Vladislav Namestnikov, forward prospect Brett Howden, defenseman prospect Libor Hajek, a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft and a conditional second-round pick in the 2019 draft on Monday.

Players to watch

Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past eight games.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in a nine-game point streak.

They said it

"He's a mature player. He knows how to play the puck, [and] he's a good face-off guy. What we are trying to do is get as deep a group as we can possibly have." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on forward Tomas Plekanec
"I think our power play was good, it got us some games but we still have to get better. Our penalty kill needs to get better and we need to be able to roll four lines and continue playing the right way." -- Lightning forward Chris Kunitz on following up a 3-0-0 road trip

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Patrick Marleau -- Nazem Kadri -- Mitchell Marner
Zach Hyman -- William Nylander -- Kasperi Kapanen
James van Riemsdyk -- Tyler Bozak -- Connor Brown
Leo Komarov -- Tomas Plekanec -- Josh Leivo
Morgan Rielly -- Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner -- Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott -- Roman Polak
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:Connor Carrick, Matt Martin, Dominic Moore
Injured:Auston Matthews (shoulder)

Lightning projected lineup

Tyler Johnson -- Steven Stamkos -- Ryan Callahan
Alex Killorn -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Chris Kunitz -- Yanni Gourde -- Adam Erne
Cedric Paquette -- Cory Conacher
Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Mikhail Sergachev -- Dan Girardi
Braydon Coburn -- Andrej Sustr
Slater Koekkoek
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched: Jake Dotchin
Injured: Ondrej Palat (lower body), Peter Budaj (lower body)

Status report

Plekanec will wear No. 19 for the Maple Leafs. ...Matthews was placed on injured reserve Sunday. ... The Lightning planned to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen after trading Namestnikov.

Stat pack

Plekanec has 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) in 48 games against the Lightning. … Kadri has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in his past 15 games. … Stamkos has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past nine games.