By: David Alter

BOSTON — James Reimer will return between the pipes tonight when the Maple Leafs take on the Bruins at TD Garden.

Reimer missed the last 18 games due to concussion-like symptoms.  When asked if he was going to play tonight, Reimer responded with “you bet I am.”  Reimer added “I’m excited and I’m excited to get back in the net. It’s been a long time since I’ve been out there, so I’m really excited about tonight.”

The decision is a little surprising given Head Coach Ron Wilson told the media yesterday that Jonas Gustavsson was going to be the one who starts with Reimer backing him up.

“About three days ago” Wilson said when asked about when he had come to the decision to start Reimer tonight.  “He’s been ready for awhile and he wants to play and he doesn’t think he can get more ready.”

Wilson didn’t want to elaborate on why he decided to keep the decision to start Reimer a secret up until now. “I’m not talking about that anymore, I mean this is at nauseum after awhile” said Wilson.

Reimer is 4-0-1 this season in six appearances and hasn’t taken on the Bruins yet this season.  The ‘Monster’ has started in two of the games against Boston, while Ben Scriven had a start as well.

Cody Franson will re-enter the lineup while Keith Aulie will be a healthy scratch.

Lines

Lupul-Bozak-Kessel

MacArthur-Connolly-Frattin

Crabb-Grabovski-Kulemin

Steckel-Colborne-Dupuis

Defense

Phaneuf-Gunnarsson

Gardiner-Schenn

Liles-Franson

Goalies

Reimer

Gustavssom

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.