http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=144596&hubname=

 

Leafs and Canadiens meet again

 

(Sports Network) - One of the fiercest rivalries in all of hockey resumes this evening, as the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre.


This is the fourth meeting of the season between these teams. The Canadiens won on October 8, but Toronto took the next two matchups.

The Canadiens were in action Friday in Buffalo and were handed a 3-1 setback. Martin Biron made 40 saves to anchor the Sabres, while Tim Connolly and Brian Campbell each had a goal and an assist.

Richard Zednik scored the only goal for the Canadiens, who have lost three out of their last four games. Yann Danis made 28 saves in the defeat.

Tonight's game is the middle test of a three-game road trip for Montreal. The Habs are 6-2-2 as the road team this season.

Meanwhile, the Leafs lost a shootout contest in Carolina on Friday. Radim Vrbata and Matt Cullen each recorded shootout goals, as the Hurricanes edged Toronto, 4-3, at the RBC Center.


Jason Allison, Chad Kilger and former Hurricane Jeff O'Neill had goals in the defeat, the Maple Leafs' second in a row off a four-game win streak. Mikael Tellqvist finished with 32 saves.

Toronto thought it had the game won in the opening minute of overtime when Mats Sundin took in a pass from Alex Steen and fired a shot in close that was blocked in front and covered by Martin Gerber. Replays showed the puck crossed the line before Gerber kicked it out with his skate, but officials ruled that play had already been stopped.

The Maple Leafs are 8-4-1 on home ice this season.

Toronto has won six of the last eight matchups with Montreal and has taken three of the last five at the Air Canada Centre.

http://www.canadiens.com/eng/news/redirect.cfm?sectionID=habsNewsDetails.cfm&newsItemID=4534

 

Game Preview: Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs

 

TORONTO – It’s a safe bet that many Canadians will be parked in front of their tv sets tonight as the Canadiens and Maple Leafs renew their rivalry at the Air Canada Centre. Both teams were on the wrong end of the final scores in their respective games Friday night and will be looking to get back on the winning track with tonight’s matchup.

Riding a three-game road losing streak, Montreal (14-6-3) ran into a steady Martin Biron Friday night, beating him just once in the 3-1 loss, despite outshooting the Sabres 41-31. The Canadiens are 0-2-1 since their last road victory on Nov. 4, after starting the season 6-0-1 away from the Bell Centre.

Toronto heads into tonight’s meeting on the heels of a 4-3 shootout loss to Carolina. The Maple Leafs (12-8-3) are now 1-2 in games decided by the ultimate tie-breaker. Pat Quinn’s troops have dropped two straight, having lost 5-1 at home to the Bruins earlier in the week, and now find themselves in fourth place in the Northeast Division.

Tonight’s contest marks the halfway point in meetings between these two clubs. The Canadiens opened the season series with a win in Toronto, while the Maple Leafs have taken the last two, both at the Bell Centre.

First goal glory: One point that is likely in the game plan for both teams tonight – score the first goal. Claude Julien’s squad is 10-1-1 when they tally first, while the Maple Leafs have had similar success with a 9-2-1 record.

Two in two: Tonight’s contest closes out Montreal’s sixth back-to-back series of the season. The Canadiens have put together a 3-2-1 record in the first game and are 4-1 in game two. The lone defeat came one week ago at the hands of the Washington Capitals. Toronto is playing in its fifth set of back-to-back meetings this weekend. The Leafs are 2-2-1 in game one and have found success in the second matchup with three wins in four games.

Return of the vets: Jose Theodore and Ed Belfour, both of whom received a rare day off in their club’s respective Friday games, will both be back in goal on Saturday night. In his last start, Theodore was on top of his game as he led the Canadiens to their first-ever shootout win in franchise history over the Thrashers on Tuesday, improving his 2005-06 record to 11-4-3. Belfour, for his part, was in nets for the Maple Leafs’ loss to the Bruins but still holds a solid 10-6-2 record this season.


After a top-notch effort against the Thrashers Tuesday, Jose Theodore will look to bring more of the same against the Maple Leafs Saturday.

Well guys this is dedication. Here I am at my company Xmas party and I am in the lobby of th ehotel using their computer to give my thoughts on the game tonite. First of all for those who were offended by my little rant today about negativity, please do not take it as me "thinking I am always right" (I was married 12 years which was long enough for me to know I am seldom right) or that I do not respect everyone else's opinion here. Because I certainly do. I just wanted to give everyone a wake up call here and appreciate what we have and try to build on the positives.

As for the game tonight..geesh we are so overdue to run into a goalie on an off night. Yes, a certain amount of our problem has not been so much the fact that goalies are standing on their heads against us as it has been the fact that we do not have the players capable of putting the biscuit in the net (see Bonk, Bulis, Ribiero and yes Ryder to an extent). But we are due to run into a goalie who is having an off night (why cant we get the Belfour who played against Boston Wed night?).

Someone asked me here what w eneed to do to get back to being the team that was playing 2 weeks ago. If I knew that I would be behind the bench and CJ would be down here drinking my rum tonite. I will say a couple things though. 2 weeks ago we were getting contributions form guys like Begin. Where has Stevey been lately? We need the 3rd and fourth lines now, more than ever, to chip in with some timely goals. The second line is an ongoing saga. It was not a factor when we were winning and is not a factor now. As good and useful as Bonk has been defensively, we need a point or two out of him. He is capable of scoring. You can be a stalwart defensive forward and still chip in on the scoresheet (see Guy Carbonneau). Like todays enforcers, teams cannot carry players who are one dimensional. Respectfully And-O, we need Bonk to boink the biscuit.

But I think what is more eveident is that other teams are adapting to the speed that the Habs have. At the first we were able to surprise teams in the "new NHL" with our speed through the neautral zone. No more. Teams have adapted to that and are shutting us down. So Julien and his staff need to find new ways to utilize the strangths of this team.

Having said that, I call for a 5-3 Habs win tonite. Now..back to the Captain.

barry33 wrote:

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Well guys this is dedication. Here I am at my company Xmas party and I am in the lobby of th ehotel using their computer to give my thoughts on the game tonite. First of all for those who were offended by my little rant today about negativity, please do not take it as me "thinking I am always right" (I was married 12 years which was long enough for me to know I am seldom right) or that I do not respect everyone else's opinion here. Because I certainly do. I just wanted to give everyone a wake up call

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Well barry, you certainly ARE dedicated.  Good to hear from you on this night, and yes, your wake up call was timely and deserved by all of us.

Now go enjoy your party.  I hope you're taping the game for watching tomorrow morning (afternoon?).  I promise I won't tell you the score before you watch it.

And I hope you don't get hit with that disease you and Souray share!  Somehow, I don't think that's a problem for Sheldon................

 

I know I will make some enemies with this one, but you can watch a game and you just get a certain feeling.I can see they just do not have it tonight. The ref stands there watches domi hook/trip koivu  no penalty. Striet touches someone  oh penalty. Its bad enough when u r not playing well but then the refs suck  oh its 2-0 now. Another thing while I am venting. We are all entitled to our opinions. Granted we are all Habs fans and want the same thing. We have differing opinions on how things hould be done. I for one cannot see us losing  and losing again and again with the brass saying oh souray and kovy will be back soon and all will be well. Well all will not be well. By the time they get back we will be lower and lower in the standings. If we could land a player for the D that will compliment the team and help us out of this rut  I say  look for someone. I would wrather see that happen instead of them saying  well we have great young guys in Hamilton who in a few years will help the team. As far as I am concerned the time is now to atleast try to build the team and not from within  you must go outside to find the right person. Yes, the cap does not help I understand that. But with tonights loss and again in Ottawa. Sorry but I can see it coming, we will be in bad shape.  I am now going back to watch my beloved habs , say a few prayers and hopefully they will come back gloriously and stave off our 3rd loss to TO ans shut the mouths of Domi and Lindros

-- Edited by davidb at 19:44, 2005-11-26

Hmmm.....#$!# Kilger?

I'm starting to relate to these "free fall" predictions.

Mtl has come out playing better in the second period . . . why oh why do they ALWAYS stink in the first period's lately???

2-2 in the second now with the Habs going on the PP . . .

Better period for the Habs, they are taking too many penalties.  Domi has drawn three Hab penalties sp far, that's rediculous.  I have a feeling Mtl's poor effort in the first will be their downfall though.

End of two . . .

Leafs 3 Habs 2

Shots - Tor 29 Mtl 20 

Just here for a second in my rum induced Xmas office party haze..have on been able to grab glimpses of the game with the bartender *hiccup*...at any rate..,the Markov goa should have counted or at the very least a penalty should have been called. As for Zed's penalty..dumb dumb dumb...good to see Theo come back big...ok honey I am coming..hold onto yer britches

at the minimum someone should have gotten a penalty on the goal that was called back  then again if there was a penalty called the goal should have counted

davidb wrote:

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at the minimum someone should have gotten a penalty on the goal that was called back  then again if there was a penalty called the goal should have counted

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We got ripped on that one, it was a goal!  Goalie interference my ass . . . Toronto's whining earlier in the year sure has paid off.  I'm starting to feel that I'd like to see Julien a bit more animated with some of these calls.

Toronto is getting away with playing pretty close to the way hockey was played before the lock-out.  They literally could have had 4 penalties in the past 5 minutes . . . but NONE were called.

WHY IN GOD'S NAME WAS RIBIERO ON THE ICE FOR THE LAST MINUTE OF PLAY IN THE THIRD???

Tough call on Rivet . . . the Ref's put their whistles away for the last part of the third then call that crap!

Habs got a point though . . . Leafs go on the PP to start overtime.

ok...I may be drunk..but even the bartender at this party who is a Laffs fan could not believe that call....where is the consistency? First start to Sundin?? No..first star to the refs. I do not care what you gusy say the Habs DESERVED better. Except fo rthe first period they outplayed them..but you cannot outplay the refs, The head of officials needs to seriously look at this. The other night in Atlanta, a gust of wind gets called...tonite..they call nothing against the clutch and grab LAffs and call a penalty which was borderline at best with 4 seconds left?!??? Nice.