The Montreal Canadiens host the Toronto Maple Leafs in a classic NHL matchup Saturday night.
Despite the distance between teams – Montreal is seventh in the Atlantic Division while the Leafs sit third – both are facing similar situations: the quest to find improvement.
For Toronto, it’s about being firm and becoming a team that doesn’t need to outscore its problems.
The Leafs’ defensive structure is that focus for growth, with general manager Brad Treliving acquiring a pair of blueliners, Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson in recent days.
The need for progress in that zone was apparent in a 4-1 loss to a potential first-round playoff opponent, the Boston Bruins.
It was a bruising game in which the Leafs answered the bell, but Thursday was still the Leafs’ seventh loss in a row to Boston, including a 4-0 Bruins sweep this season.
“The score wasn’t the way we wanted it to be,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said after the loss. “I liked a lot of things about our game here tonight, particularly the competitiveness of our team and what was by far and away the most physical game we’ve played this season. … I liked that our guys stood in there.”
Morgan Rielly called the loss “tough,” but expects his team to keep learning as they move toward securing a postseason berth.
“Whoever we play in the first round, we’ll be ready to go,” Reilly said. “What happens now, you want to build your game, you want to get going in the right direction, but we’re a month away. There is still lots to improve upon, lots of runway left in the season.”
Saturday will just be the second meeting of the season between the historic rivals.
The first game, last Oct. 11, was each team’s first game of the year. Toronto was able to sneak past Montreal in a shootout 6-5.
Since then, the Canadiens have been a team under construction.
Montreal enters Saturday night’s game coming off a road trip that at first glance looked like a disaster.
The Habs were winless in three of the four games, but there were positives to be found. They lost to Florida and Tampa Bay in shootouts before falling to Carolina 4-1 on Thursday. The one win was in overtime, 4-3 over Nashville.
“Yah, all pretty much playoff teams. Just how we can play against good teams, it’s really encouraging,” Nick Suzuki said. “Going back home, we got a really good team coming in so we’ve got to be ready for Saturday.”
For coach Martin St. Louis, it’s just more lessons learned.
“You have to understand what kind of game is going to be played,” St. Louis said following their loss in Raleigh, N.C.
“You have to be able to adapt depending on who the opponents (are). We’re getting better at learning to play (a) different style of game, to not just be a one-trick pony.”
Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano could be a game-time decision. He returned to the ice earlier this week following a concussion.
–Field Level Media