Music: {allcanada} Penguins' Letang returning against Maple Leafs

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MAPLE LEAFS (13-15-7) at PENGUINS (17-15-3)

TV: SN, ROOT

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang will return to the lineup against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Consol Energy Center on Wednesday.

Letang practiced Tuesday and was on the ice for the morning skate Wednesday. He sat out the 1-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday because of precautionary reasons. He had played 28 shifts totaling 21:42 of ice time in a 3-1 defeat of the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, his first game back after missing six because of an upper-body injury.

During the morning skate, Letang skated alongside defenseman Olli Maatta and manned the point on the top power-play unit with forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist.

Because of various injuries Letang has missed nine of Pittsburgh's past 11 games. He was placed in the concussion protocol after taking a hit to the head from Wild forward Jarret Stoll on Saturday, but coach Mike Sullivan said the results came back negative.

Letang, who has a history of head injuries, said he was concerned he sustained another concussion immediately after the hit.

"I got dinged pretty hard there," Letang said. "It took me a little bit of a moment to get back to my senses and I was fine after that … I just had hard headaches as soon as I got hit and then it went away."

Following a resurgent 2014-15 with 11 goals and 54 points in 69 games, Letang has struggled through the first half of this season; he has one goal and a minus-13 rating in 26 games.

Letang will play his second game under Sullivan, who replaced Mike Johnston on Dec. 12, but said he doesn't think he will struggle to adapt to Sullivan's systems. Sullivan has attempted to make the transition for Letang, and other injured Penguins, smoother by having them join team meetings.

"We're a better team when he's in our lineup," Sullivan said. "He's an impact player. I think from our standpoint it's been a little bit of a challenge just because of the injuries we've been trying to endure here, and at the same time try to implement some changes into how we're playing.

"The one thing that we have done since I've been here is we have all the injured guys sit in on meetings. We haven't had a lot of practice time so we've been trying to do things through the use of video a lot."

The Maple Leafs did not skate Wednesday after losing 6-3 to the New York Islanders on Tuesday. Goalie James Reimer made six saves in relief of starter Jonathan Bernier; it was Reimer's first game since sustaining a lower-body injury Dec. 3. He's expected to start Wednesday.

Pittsburgh will start Matthew Murray in goal. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who is out because of a concussion, took shots from defenseman Adam Clendening before morning skate and remained on the ice for practice, but Murray was the first goalie off the ice Wednesday.

Murray is 2-1-0 with a 1.68 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in his first three NHL games. He said he realizes he could be reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League when Fleury is healthy but said he isn't allowing that to concern him.

"It hasn't really been spelled out for me but it's not something I can worry about," Murray said. "It's out of my control. Obviously things will change when he comes back and what happens is not my decision. So whatever it is I just have to kind of roll with it."

Here are the projected lineups:

MAPLE LEAFS

James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - PA Parenteau

Michael Grabner - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov

Daniel Winnik - Peter Holland - Joffrey Lupul

Shawn Matthias - Byron Froese - Brad Boyes

Jake Gardiner - Dion Phaneuf

Matt Hunwick - Morgan Rielly

Martin Marincin - Roman Polak

James Reimer

Jonathan Bernier

Injured: Stephane Robidas (lower body), Garret Sparks (lower body), Nick Spaling (upper body),

Scratched: Frank Corrado, Mark Arcobello

PENGUINS

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Conor Sheary

David Perron - Evgeni Malkin - Patric Hornqvist

Scott Wilson - Nick Bonino - Phil Kessel

Kevin Porter - Matt Cullen - Eric Fehr

Kris Letang - Olli Maatta

Ian Cole - Trevor Daley

Brian Dumoulin - Ben Lovejoy

Matthew Murray

Jeff Zatkoff

Injured: Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), Beau Bennett (upper body)

Scratched: Sergei Plotnikov, Adam Clendening, David Warsofsky

Status report: Cullen participated in the morning skate after missing practice Tuesday. … Arcobello was recalled from Toronto of the AHL on Wednesday. He had 12 shots on goal in seven games in October. … Corrado will be scratched for the third straight game after playing three of five games before the holiday break.

Who's hot: Malkin has 11 goals in his past 10 home games. He leads the Penguins with 30 points and 17 goals. … Van Riemsdyk has points in four straight games and in seven of his past eight. He has six goals and four assists in that span.

Team Stats