BOSTON — Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov will be back in the Toronto Maple Leafs' lineup on Thursday night as they try to avoid mathematical elimination from the NHL playoffs.
Both Sundin and Antropov took part in the morning skate and pronounced themselves fit to play against the Boston Bruins. This will reunite the Leafs' top line for the second half of a home-and-home series with the Bruins, who essentially eliminated the Leafs from the playoff race with a 6-2 win on Tuesday night.
"I felt good this morning so I'll give it a try tonight," Sundin said Thursday morning. He has been out of the lineup since tearing a groin muscle in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 12.
Antropov was lost to a knee injury on March 15. There was some thought he might have ligament damage that would require surgery in the off-season but he said that will not be necessary.
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"I skated for two days and there wasn't any pain or discomfort," Antropov said. "Otherwise, I wouldn't play."
Sundin and Antropov will play with either Alexander Steen or Alexei Ponikarovsky on left wing. It appears Jeremy Williams and either Kris Newbury or Mark Bell will be scratched to make room for Sundin and Antropov.
If the Leafs lose in regulation time to the Bruins, they will be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. They go into the Boston game six points behind the eighth-place Bruins with five games left in the regular season.
Leafs centre Matt Stajan, 24, who was left answering most of the media questions by the other veterans on the team in Sundin's absence, said the rest of the players cannot relax now that the captain is back in the lineup.
"Everybody's got to keep playing the way they have been," he said. "But he obviously adds a presence in the [dressing] room and on the ice."
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