The Toronto Maple Leafs welcome the New York Rangers to the Air Canada Centre tonight. Both teams are out of the playoffs right now but this game still has a lot of importance. The Leafs play Pittsburgh tomorrow so if a split is good enough they'd be well advised to pick up the points tonight. The Rangers, on the other hand, still harbour hopes of sneaking into the 8th playoff spot. The Boston Bruins lead them by three points and are beating the hapless Calgary Flames 3-0 as I type this.
Jonas Gustavsson is getting the start tonight as he looks to continue his ridiculous hot streak. He's 6-0-0 with a 1.92 GAA and .925sv% over that stretch bringing his numbers this year to decent rookie levels:
The Rangers will respond with the goalie that we all hope Gustavsson will someday become:
Some Rangers notes after the jump.
There will be some changes in the visitors' lineup:
Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants is reporting that the New York Rangers have recalled veteran defenseman Anders Eriksson and forward P.A. Parenteau from the Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL) this afternoon. As far as Parenteau goes, the reasoning behind this move is most likely because Ryan Callahan, who left last night's game against the New Jersey Devils with a lower-body injury, may not be able to play tomorrow in Toronto.
Callahan originally suffered the injury against the Bruins when Zdeno Chara collided with him along the boards, and last night's minor bumping seemed to aggravate it. Also, Brian Boyle is currently out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury, so Parenteau could be a replacement for him as well.
My pal Jim has a rundown of the Rangers' topsy-turvy run of late which has seen the team veer from on the verge of disaster to the midst of the playoff battle and everywhere in between. Puck drop is at 7pm and the game thread will go up at 630pm as usual.
