Maple Leafs at Lightning preview

MAPLE LEAFS (43-22-7) at LIGHTNING (49-19-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, TSN4, NHL.TV

Palat missed 26 games with a high ankle sprain. He has 30 points (eight goals, 22 assists) for the Lightning, who have clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They lead the Atlantic Division with 102 points, three ahead of the Boston Bruins and nine in front of the Maple Leafs.
Goalie Frederik Andersen will start for the Maple Leafs after missing two games with an upper-body injury. Andersen is 33-18-5 with a 2.79 goals-against-average and .919 save percentage.
Toronto has won four straight games and trail the Bruins by six points for second place.

Players to watch

Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner has seven points (two goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak.
Lightning center Steven Stamkos has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in his past eight games.

They said it

"Tonight's game has a chance to be a real good hockey game so we've got to hold up our end of that. It's going to be tight. They're deep. They've added lots of guys. They've got Palat back, so it's going to be a nice hockey game and a good opportunity for our team." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock
"Clinching a playoff berth, that's the big hurdle to compete for a Stanley Cup. But ultimately you want to be playing your best hockey three weeks from now. There's still a lot to play for. Home ice is a big thing." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Maple Leafs projected lineup

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

Lightning projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn -- Yanni Gourde -- Adam Erne
Chris Kunitz -- Anthony Cirelli -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Ryan McDonagh -- Dan Girardi
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Andrej Sustr, Jake Dotchin, Slater Koekkoek, Cory Conacher, Cedric Paquette, Peter Budaj
Injured:None

Status report

Matthews, Komarov and Zaitsev worked out on the ice but will not play.

Stat pack

Rielly has seven assists in a five-game point streak. … Vasilevskiy's 40 wins are tied with Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators for the NHL lead. He's one from breaking the Lightning's single-season record set by Ben Bishop in 2014-15.