Maple Leafs to play Montréal Canadiens in exhibition game

The Toronto Maple Leafs have played the Montréal Canadiens 4,834 times over the last 867 years. The record is 2397 wins for Toronto, with 2345 for the Habs. The remainder is from the era when ties were allowed.

In exhibition play, the record is slightly tilted to the Canadiens on the 382 games that have been played that don’t count. One more will be added to that tally on July 28, inside the hub, as the two teams meet in a match that will be used to carefully calibrate how much swearing the on-ice mics pick up in Scotiabank Arena.

Hockey. In July.

12 exhibition games are on the schedule later this month ahead of the #StanleyCup Qualifiers. https://t.co/64XfKl1jJy pic.twitter.com/ApuIKYP2M2

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) July 14, 2020

In net for Toronto will be whoever the third goalie is. For the Habs it will be Carey Price because we don’t think they actually have another. We can’t remember. The game will pit Nick Robertson against his greatest enemy for the first time and give him a chance to fight Ryan Poehling, because, good god that game was annoying where he scored 12 goals against the Leafs.

Shea Weber is expected to play, and by the end of the game, we’ll know who takes the most low danger shots in the NHL, him or Tyson Barrie.

John Tavares won’t be playing because he doesn’t meet with the Canadiens.

Brendan Shanahan turned down the Montréal request for a 40 min ceremony before the game, so it might start on time.

The game will be absolutely absurd, may feature weird fake crowd noises, and we will all watch it because it will be the first game since March 10.

And in slightly more important news, here’s the schedule for the first few real games:

NHL Schedule

The first two games for the Leafs are at 8 pm and 4 pm local time.