Maple Leafs vs Canadiens preview: One and done

Toronto Maple Leafs game #19 vs Montreal Canadiens
Broadcast Start: 7:00PM
Watch: CBC, Sportsnet, City TV, TVA Sports, ESPN+, NHL Live
Enemy: Habs Eyes on the Prize

This season has seen the Toronto Maple Leafs, and everyone else, play multiple games in a row against opponents in a single location. However, the intense rivalry between the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens has prevented this from happening for the two teams.

They opened the season against each other in Toronto, and then we moved on to Ottawa. Almost a month later the Leafs flew into Montreal for a game, then flew home. The next game was also against Montreal, but they had to change venues lest the locals get so wound up they storm the Bell Centre. Now we’re back in Montreal, for one night only. and then it’s back home to play the Flames on Monday.

The top two teams in the division have kept the games pretty close. with a 5-4 OT win for the Leafs, a 4-2 win for the Leafs, and then a 2-1 victory for the Habs. Let’s see how these two stack up in my simple little chart.

Preview Stats

Montreal Canadiens lines (guessed)

Tyler Toffoli - Phillip Danault - Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin - Nick Suzuki - Josh Anderson
Tomas Tatar - Jesper Kotkaniemi - Joel Armia
Artturi Lehkonen - Jake Evans - Paul Byron

Ben Chiarot - Shea Weber
Joel Edmundson - Jeff Petry
Victor Mete - Alexander Romanov

Carey Price
Jake Allen

Toronto Maple Leafs lines (also guessed)

Joe Thornton - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - William Nyander
Alex Kerfoot - Pierre Engvall - Ilya Mikheyev
Jimmy Vesey - Travis Boyd - Jason Spezza

Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Travis Dermott - Zach Bogosian

Frederik Andersen
Michael Hutchinson

Sheldon Keefe confirmed that Zach Hyman would replace Nic Petan and Zach Bogosian would replace Mikko Lehtonen, so I swapped out Mikko for Zach, and Bumped the LW down to take out Petan, since I don’t think Hyman would play on the 4th line and the top line worked so well on Thursday I wouldn’t touch it.

I’m a little disappointed we won’t see Alex Galchenyuk make his Leafs debut vs the Canadiens. Come on Sheldon, where’s your sense of story telling?

Tweets and other game day tidbits

On This Day In Hockey History...🏒

The @MapleLeafs opened the Air Canada Centre with a 3-2 overtime win over the @CanadiensMTL. pic.twitter.com/9AbK3r7vD2

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 20, 2021

Leafs at Montreal tonight. Auston Matthews will play in his 300th regular season NHL game. The first 299 have yielded 174 goals (tied for 20th in franchise history with Dick Duff) and 136 assists. Has 16 goals in 17 games, a point in 15 consecutive. Lineup updates later this a.m.

— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) February 20, 2021

Is this good for Matthews, or just a point the Leafs have been historically awful?

Both, I guess.

Good morning. pic.twitter.com/7OiANBBstL

— David Alter (@dalter) February 20, 2021

Dummy Habs put the logo on the ice backwards.

Morgan Rielly on Sidney Crosby, who will reach the 1,000-game milestone tonight: "I think the way he plays is the way you want your teammates to play."

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) February 20, 2021

Hint hint guys.

After three straight games against the worst team in the division, where the Leafs never quite dominated the way they should have, the chance to really build of Thursdays 7-3 victory and prove themselves against their closest competitor should motivate them to come out swinging.

Let’s get ready for another classic game between these two NHL mainstays.

Here’s a Go Leafs Go from a randomly picked Maple Leafs fan:

Toronto vs. Montreal go leafs go #LeafsNation #NHL #NHLFaceOff

— Nick Suzuki (@nsuzuki_37) October 1, 2013