Auston Matthews’ return means the Maple Leafs’ lineup is at full strength for this much-anticipated HNIC rivalry game against the Boston Bruins (7:00 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC).

Encouragingly, the Leafs‘ McMann – Domi – Robertson third line, along with a couple of goals from the fourth line (vs. NYI and DET), remained productive during Matthews’ recent six-game absence. The top six, which was in a makeshift configuration with Matthews out and the third line remaining together, wasn’t outscored at five-on-five but wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders during the team’s 3-3-0 stretch without the captain. source

Projected Lineup:

Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner
Max Pacioretty — John Tavares — William Nylander
Bobby McMann — Max Domi — Nicholas Robertson
Steven Lorentz — David Kampf — Connor Dewar

Morgan Rielly — Phillippe Myers
Jake McCabe — Chris Tanev
Simon Benoit — Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Joseph Woll
Dennis Hildeby

Scratched: Conor Timmins, Ryan Reaves

Injured: Jani Hakanpaa (lower body), Calle Jarnkrok (lower body), Anthony Stolarz (lower body), Pontus Holmberg (illness)

Status report: Matthews will return after missing the past six games with an upper-body injury; the center was a full participant in the Maple Leafs morning skate Saturday.