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TURNING NEW LEAFS
Ron Wilson tinkered with a winning lineup from Monday night's victory over the Nashville Predators, switching from netminder Jonas Gustavsson to Vesa Toskala, trading Jay Rosehill's muscle for Rickard Wallin's offensive promise, but deciding to rest centre Wayne Primeau's knee for at least one more game.
And though defenceman Jeff Finger has been a healthy scratch for a few games, Wilson wasn't going to rob long-time Thrashers blue-liner Garnet Exelby of his first opportunity to play in Atlanta.
NOBODY'S HOME
In four months as a Thrasher, the biggest difference between playing in Toronto and Atlanta for ex-Leafs forward Nik Antropov is facing all those empty seats for a home game at Philips Arena.
Entire sections of the upper bowl were empty Tuesday night.
"Playing with half the stadium empty is obviously different," Antropov said. "But when we get going, they're pretty loud. You can see it's not a hockey market, but whatever fans are here, they cheer loud and it's great to see."
LOOSE LEAFS
With two points in Nashville, Alexei Ponikarovsky has moved past Errol Thompson into 49th place in Leafs career scoring with 247 points ... Thrashers coach and Toronto native John Anderson still holds a significant Leafs record, a 10-game scoring streak between March 18 and April 7, 1985.
