Canadiens: Big Rivalry On A Big Night

Tonight’s the night, the Montreal Canadiens’ will kick off their season by hosting their arch-rival the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’ve clashed twice during the pre-season, with the first meeting resulting in major injuries to both Patrik Laine and David Reinbacher.

This evening’s game will be the 769th regular season meeting between the two sides. The Habs have the edge with a 366-301-88-13 record and have an even better record at home with 227-108-43-7 (in 385 home games). The Leafs have won six of the last 10 battles, including the last five. Montreal’s last win against Auston Matthews and co. came on January 21, 2023. If Kirby Dach gets a points tonight, he will reach the 100 career-point mark.

Related: Canadiens: Laine Decided Not to Have Surgery

Cedric Pare, who served a knee-on-knee on Laine has been cut by the Leafs and is currently in the AHL. Hopefully, both teams will get down to business and focus on the task at hand: winning a hockey game.

If Ryan Reaves is dressed however, he might feel like he has something to prove and try to have “words” with Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj for how he went after Pare on the night. Will he dare however? His past tilt with The Sheriff didn’t exactly go his way…

Coach Martin St-Louis has already revealed that Samuel Montembeault will be manning the net for the home opener and that Jayden Struble, who is dealing with a minor injury and is evaluated daily, will not be playing.

As a result, the Canadiens’ defense pairings will be as follows:

Mike Matheson-Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson-David Savard
Arber Xhekaj-Justin Barron

Up front, yesterday’s practice seemed to suggest these would be the Canadiens’ lines:

Cole Caufield-Nick Suzuki-Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook-Kirby Dach-Joel Armia
Alex Barre-Boulet-Christian Dvorak-Josh Anderson
Brendan Gallagher-Jake Evans-Emil Heineman

The top line likes playing against the Toronto foe, Slafkovsky has got four points in as many games against them, Caufield has got 12 points in 12 matches and Suzuki has 21 points in 24 games. The same cannot be said about Montembeault however, he has a 2-4-0 record against the Leafs with a 4.17 goals-against average and a .884 save percentage.

Related: Canadiens’ Practice Reveals Roster For Regular Season

The game is set for 7:00 PM and I’ll admit I’m very curious to see this season’s opening video and ceremonies.

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