The Canadiens take their sputtering offense down the 401 to take on the Leafs at the Air Canada Centre tonight. Carey Price will be in goal for the Habs, getting his first chance against the Leafs in his young career.
The Canadiens have had trouble scoring goals lately, getting only 7 goals in their last four games. They're hoping the Leafs defense, which has given up an NHL-worst 65 goals so far this year, will be the cure to their problems.
This is the third meeting between the archrivals so far this year, with Toronto winning each of the first two by a one goal margin. Toronto netminder Vesa Toskala picked up wins in both of those games and Cristobal Huet was on the hook for both losses against the Leafs.
The Toronto Sun is reporting that the Leafs will be wearing their white road jerseys tonight instead of their blue home sweaters. This is apparently due to the fact that the Leafs are 3-4-3 wearing the blue shirts and 3-3-1 in the white.
The Leafs have bested the Canadiens with a record of 10-4-4 against them since the NHL lockout.
It's exciting that the kid is getting a chance to play against the Leafs. Huet is having a great year (again) but seems to have a mental issue against the Leafs. Hopefully Price will once again be cooler than Miles Davis between the pipes and the Leafs won't get a free win like did at the Bell Centre 10 days ago.
Should we be worrying about the Habs power play? They haven't scored too many power play goals lately, but then they haven't been getting many power plays. If the slow Leafs can stay out of the box, or get a disproportionate amount of power plays, they could once again come out on top.
Alex Kovalev mentioned yesterday that the Habs tend to come out too strong, and act like it's a Game 7 situation for these games against Toronto and that they need to keep it simple in order to be successful. He's right. The Canadiens are the better, faster team and shouldn't let the Leafs stay in games.
other notes...
Garth Murray has been picked up on waivers by the Florida Panthers. He was a hard-working winger who wasn't scared to drop the gloves. I have nothing but praise for him, and wish him the best going forward.
For me, the highlight of his career in Montreal was Bob Cole in the 2005 playoffs with this memorable call,
"Here comes Murray, he can really fly."
or maybe it was
"Here comes Murray, he's got wings!"
Not the most accurate description I've ever heard but flattering nonetheless.
In other news, Mike Komisarek is finally starting to get the recognition he deserves as a legitimate number one defenceman in the league, and arguably the hardest hitting player out there as well.
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