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TORONTO — The Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs will turn up at the Air Canada Centre for their big showdown Saturday night like a bunch of nervous, average high-school students about to take their final exam.
One hopes, for their sakes, the Leafs and Habs did their homework Friday and learned plenty about why neither team can be proud of its performance in the past seven days. These two clubs are not exactly brimming with confidence right now.
The Leafs have limped to the finish line with two road losses to the New York Rangers and New York Islanders by a combined score of 12-4 that sandwiched a win against the last-place Philadelphia Flyers, and the Leafs needed overtime to accomplish that feat.
The Canadiens squeaked by the struggling Boston Bruins 2-0 at home on Tuesday and two nights ago appeared in a daze when they lost 3-1 to the Rangers.
The Maple Leafs' Darcy Tucker fights with the Canadiens' Francis Bouillon during a game last month. The two teams will meet Saturday night for a shot at the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
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Now, after six months and 81 regular-season games, the long-time rivals will congregate for a one-game faceoff to decide which team will have an opportunity to advance to the postseason. However, a Leafs victory would open the door for the Islanders to snag the eighth and final playoff spot if they win their remaining two games, leaving both the Leafs and Habs out of the playoffs.
"It's been like the playoffs for us for three weeks now," Montreal defenceman Sheldon Souray said. "I guess this is our Game 7."
The Canadiens had a chance to clinch a playoff berth on Thursday with a victory over the Rangers, but Montreal played an apprehensive game. It was almost like the Canadiens expected to lose.
Earlier in the week, the team made a peculiar decision to cancel their ice time in Toronto Friday in order to stay and practice in the New York area, avoid the hullabaloo that would await the Canadiens in Toronto and sneak into town about dinner time. This change of plans didn't exude much confidence by management that the Montreal players could get the job done on Broadway. But the players themselves didn't seem to mind.
"I don't think too many guys are upset at it because we know what kind of a circus it's going to be there," Souray said. "We have to focus on what we've got to do.
"There is going to be a lot of distraction there. But guys who have been around, we know what we have to do, what our focus needs to be, where our heads have to be at, because there is going to be a lot going on."
So much so that the Canadiens also have contemplated avoiding the morning skate at the Air Canada Centre Saturday.
On the surface, it would appear the odds have been stacked against the Canadiens, even though they have won nine of their past 12 outings. They have not been good on the road, having won only one of their past four games. The Leafs, on the other hand, have reeled off eight in a row at home.
"Nothing has come easy for us," Souray said. "We have to put forth our best game. We have no other choice. We're the type of team that has to use our speed. We're a fast team. We have to move the puck better than we did [on Thursday].
"We have one game to make the playoffs and there will be a lot riding on this one game. But back in training camp, we weren't given much of a chance to make the playoffs this year. If they would have said you will have one last game to make the playoffs, we would have taken it."
Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau will likely start last year's hero in goal, Cristobal Huet. The French-born and raised netminder missed 20 games after undergoing surgery to repair a serious hamstring injury and saw his first action since the injury when he replaced rookie Jaroslav Halak to start the third period on Thursday.
"I felt a little nervous going in," said Huet, who stopped the eight shots he faced.
"This will be a dramatic game. There obviously will be a lot of pressure on us, but there will be a lot of pressure on them as well because they are playing at home and are expected to win."
In their past two games at the Air Canada Centre, the Habs have not done well, suffering defeats by a combined score of 9-2.
"We still control our own destiny," Souray said. "But we could have made it easy on ourselves."
