North Playoffs: 1. Toronto Maple Leafs vs 4. Montreal Canadiens

[2014olympicgold]

Walmart Ray Liotta said Caufield, KK, and Romanov will not play Game 1. Did say he expects to play them in the series.

MTL Lines at practice:
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Toffoli - Suzuki - Armia
Perry - Staal - Anderson
Byron - Evans - Lehkonen

Edmundson - Petry
Kulak - Chiarot
Merrill - Weber
Romanov - Ouellet/Gustafsson

[newfcollins]

Staal has been awful since he got to Montreal, but sure, dress him over KK or Caufield.

I'd also dress one of the youngsters over Danault, but what do I know?

[2014olympicgold]

Staal has been awful since he got to Montreal, but sure, dress him over KK or Caufield.

I'd also dress one of the youngsters over Danault, but what do I know?

The Danault thing makes more sense than Dressing Staal. And I don't get why he would announce this 2 days before the game to allow Toronto to plan for this lineup.

[Axeman33]

Let's be honest, Kotkaniemi has been awful for most of the year. I have no issues sitting him. He should be playing in the AHL full time until his game improves. Poor prospect development.

Caufield should be playing seeing as he's one of the few forwards generating any speed and offense lately. I'm also surprised Romanov is sitting but we'll see how that goes.

[Feenom]

I don’t know but I thought they misused Anderson a lot this season. Beginning of the season he hardly sniffed the PP1 then from the mid point on til the end of season he was moved down to the 3rd line. The guy is tough, has speed and can score but his usage to me is a head shaker.

[Feenom]

Also just heard on overdrive that if this series makes it back to Montreal for game 6 they will be allowed to have 2500 fans. We shall see.

[Invictus]

So I like to change my prediction... I forgot to take into account that golf courses are still closed in Ontario. This means the Leafs no longer have a reason to play to lose. Leafs in 4

[Dennis]

I'm genuinely shocked I haven't heard that joke yet.

[2014olympicgold]

So like to change my prediction... I forgot to take into account that golf courses are still closed in Ontario. This means the Leafs no longer have a reason to play to lose. Leafs in 4

That is a great joke! lol. I laughed out loud at it lol

[lucafen4]

If we had traditional divisions - Montreal is not a playoff team.
There's no excuse for Toronto to lose this series.
That said, it's Toronto sports tradition to stress their fan bases out. I predicted 7 for that reason.
I would love nothing more than this team to prove me wrong
And play to their full potential for 4 games straight.
Every game & the series should be a blowout....
should be - but it won't be.

[PenguinHunter]

If we had traditional divisions - Montreal is not a playoff team.
There's no excuse for Toronto to lose this series.
That said, it's Toronto sports tradition to stress their fan bases out. I predicted 7 for that reason.
I would love nothing more than this team to prove me wrong
And play to their full potential for 4 games straight.
Every game & the series should be a blowout....
should be - but it won't be.

Just as long as the Leaf players don't go in with the same thought process and take the Canadiens too lightly.

[Invictus]

This is the long con. Habs took note when Tampa Bay posted their 128 point season and got swept. Habs came out flying to start the year, but eased off the gas to prepare for a long playoff push. Fall comes early this year and the Leafs will be blown away by a different MTL team.

[lucafen4]

Bogosian in tonight, Riley Nash is healthy and playing. Foligno healthy.

Price, Weber & Gallagher back for the Habs.

This late playoff start is great. No excuses for either team.

40min to go time

[Invictus]

I'm glad they extended start time for CDN teams. At first I thought they were starting on the weekend and was thinking that didn't give much rest to Toronto. Not really fair.

Is Hyman healthy?

[Feenom]

Looks like it, playing with M&M