Leafs to play Habs in opening round
First time clubs will meet in playoffs since 1979
Once the Toronto Maple Leafs finish their regular season on Friday night, they’re going to have some time to collect their playoff thoughts.
And those thoughts, they learned late Tuesday, will centre around the Montreal Canadiens.
The Leafs and Canadiens will meet in in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1978-79. That became fact when the Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-0 on Tuesday night, clinching third place in the North Division.
The Jets’ victory ensured the Canadiens will end the season in fourth place, setting up a showdown with the Leafs, who clinched the division title with a win against Montreal this past Saturday.
In 10 games between the Leafs and Canadiens during this truncated season, the Leafs ruled with a record of 7-2-1. Toronto outscored Montreal 34-25.
The Leafs are 18 points ahead of their Original Six rivals in the standings and will enter the best-of-seven series as the clear favourite and with home-ice advantage.
The most recent time the Leafs defeated the Canadiens in the playoffs was in 1967, when Toronto beat Montreal in six games to win the Stanley Cup. The Leafs have never won a Cup since.
The earliest the Leafs will start what they hope will be a successful Cup run will be May 19, five nights after they skate off the ice in Winnipeg following their finale against the Jets.
“We’re trying to get some pretty important pieces back and those extra couple of days to heal and recover and build yourself up to get ready to play could be really useful,” centre Auston Matthews said.
“For me personally, maybe a couple days (off between the end of the regular season and the playoffs is fine) and then you get right into it. I’m not sure a lot of guys are fans of four or five days (off), but in the end, you still have to go out there and play.”
The indications are that forwards Zach Hyman (knee), Riley Nash (knee) and Nick Foligno (upper body) all will be good to go for Game 1. Hyman and Nash probably won’t play until the playoff opener, while Foligno was a game-time decision for the game in Ottawa on Wednesday. And the extra days off could give defenceman Zach Bogosian (shoulder) the breathing room he needs to return. What’s more, it should be suspected that the majority of Leafs are playing with the all-encompassing bumps and bruises. More days for minor issues to heal will be a bonus.
And this isn’t a club that has given any sign that too much time off would be a detriment.
Either way, coach Sheldon Keefe shrugged.
“It’s whatever they tell us it’s going to be,” Keefe said of the opening date. “What I say or what I think is irrelevant. We’ve got to deal with what we’ve got in front of us and if it ends up being the 19th or 20th or something in that neighbourhood, which it sounds like it’s going to be, we have to be ready.
“I think it gives us enough opportunity to prepare. Preparation isn’t going to be much of an issue, no matter who our opponent is. We’ve played them lots this season, and seen a ton of them in the division.
“We will be prepared no matter when the games are. Whenever they tell us to play, we’ll be ready to go.”
The Canadiens also took a cautious approach to the end of their regular season Wednesday, but know they have to be as sharp as they can be for the postseason.
“Everyone has that in their mind, knowing that we have our (playoff) spot,” the Canadiens’ Jeff Petry said after practice Tuesday morning at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard.