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Canadiens @ Maple Leafs: Game preview, start time, Tale of the Tape, and how to watch
How to watch
Game 1: Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+, TVAS+
“Pas besoin d’vivre ailleurs, moi j’reste ici / Le Québec c’est la place que j’ai choisie“
The 2025-26 season began with cautious optimism, a vote of confidence in the group of players who ushered in the franchise’s first playoff appearance in four seasons. At the same time, no one would have been surprised if one of the youngest teams in the league — who only got younger during that off-season — took a step back.
“Demidov, cutting in… what a move! Passes across, Laine — Demidov, in! Waits! Scores! Ivan Demidov, 4-4 game!”
Could Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, with all of 20 regular-season games between them, give the Canadiens the secondary scoring that they had been lacking for years?
“…Hutson’s got it onside. Hutson — he’s got space! In… wrist shot! Score! OT winner, Lane Hutson!“
Could Lane Hutson find new heights after winning the Calder Trophy?
“Bennett… in… and the poke check by Dobeš! And the win — make it six straight wins for Jakub Dobeš!”
There were obstacles, but they became opportunities. The team weathered Samuel Montembeault’s struggles until Jakub Dobeš took the reins. Phillip Danault’s return stabilized the forward corps. Alex Newhook’s injury opened the door for Alexandre Texier.
“The steal… in front! Score! And a 30-goal season for Juraj Slafkovsky!”
“Centring feed, score! A hundred point season for Nick Suzuki!”
“Voila Suzuki, Caufield s’avance… le tir et le but! Ma parole, c’est fait! De Maurice, à Boum Boum, à Guy, à Steve, à Pierre, à Stéphane, à Cole! Le flambeau est passé! 50 buts!”
There were goals. There were wins. There were milestones.
“Canadiens in victory lane, tonight!”
“Kucherov a shot, it’s blocked, it’s knocked out, and Montreal is bound for the second round!”
There were playoffs.
“Carrier, la passe. On entre avec Newhook; Evans vers la filet. Le tir, et le but! Victoire de Canadiens! Alex Newhook propulse le CH en finale de l’association de l’est!”
A playoffs that seemed like they didn’t want to end.
“On the scoreboard, the graphic reads ‘Bring on Vegas.’ For the first time since 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes are heading to the Stanley Cup Final.”
But not all stories have happy endings — yet.
The Canadiens enter 2026-27 largely unchanged, minus the notable departure of Brendan Gallagher and arrival of Chris Kreider. The same core that went through the journey of 2025-26 begin the new campaign with memories of what can, expectations of what should, and visions of what could be.
They begin it as they began that journey a year ago: in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.
Tale of the Tape
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Canadiens
Statistics (2025-26)
Maple Leafs
48-24-10
Record
32-36-14
48.6%
Expected-goal share
45.7%
3.40
Goals per game
3.07
3.06
Goals against per game
3.60
23.1%
PP%
21.3%
78.2%
PK%
81.2%
3-1-0
Head-to-Head Record
1-2-1
Cole Caufield (51)
Most goals
John Tavares (31)
Nick Suzuki (72)
Most assists
William Nylander (49)
Nick Suzuki (101)
Most points
William Nylander (79)
The Leafs won last year’s curtain raiser by a score of 5-2, taking the team to one game above .500 for their following game. They would enter four more games all season while holding a record above .500, en route to their worst non-shortened campaign since 2015-16. Unsurprisingly, general manager Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube were shown the door. The former was replaced by a John Chayka-Mats Sundin duumvirate, while Jim Hiller filled the latter’s shoes after failing to win a playoff round in three years with the Los Angeles Kings.
The new management quickly set to dismantling what they had inherited. Of the 12 forwards who played in last year’s season opener, only four remain with the club: Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander, and the currently-injured Dakota Joshua. Assuming Joshua doesn’t play in this campaign’s inaugural match, it means that Toronto will have iced 35 different forwards across their last five season-openers. On the blue line, Simon Benoit and Brandon Carlo are out, Darren Raddysh and Nick Blankenburg are in. Finally, Joseph Woll has been replaced in net by Sergei Bobrovsky. A day before the season was set to begin, they made a trade involving two of the Canadiens’ recent targets, swapping Matthew Knies for Kirill Marchenko.
Yet for all their change, the Leafs remain, for better or worse, who they have been since the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season: a squad centred on four high-profile forwards with question marks when it comes to depth, defending, and goaltending. Will Raddysh give Toronto more punch from the blue line, or will he simply render Morgan Rielly redundant in the same way that Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson have hoovered up most of Mike Matheson’s point-production? Is Bobrovsky the goaltender who won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers, or is he the one with an .877 save percentage who surfaced last season?
Then there’s Gavin McKenna, Toronto’s reward for mismanaging the Mitch Marner situation over the course of a decade. Like Marner, McKenna is a highly touted undersized forward with offensive panache to spare. Like Marner, McKenna joins the NHL after a distinguished Junior career but without international success (by Canadian expectations). But Marner joined the Leafs as part of a youth movement, one without immediate expectations. McKenna, by himself, joins a Leafs team desperately trying to wring out what’s left of Marner’s generation before the hourglass runs out. In this environment, a perfectly acceptable 50- or 60-point rookie season may still not be enough.
For the past several iterations, this Habs versus Leafs matchup has been billed as the future against the present. Tomorrow against today. Now, the Canadiens are here. But are their opponents already yesterday’s news?
