Leafs Gameday: Saturday Splits With Montreal
The NHL is back! Well, sort of. We begin the journey back to hockey of the highest level with a shortened preseason, designed to offset the shift to 84 regular season games. The Leafs are approaching their preseason with even more urgency than most, doing split-squad games across two days. Today is the first of those pairs, playing a parallel home-and-home against the rival Montreal Canadiens, both providing several debuts and long-awaited returns for the blue and white.
Fast Facts
| Puck Drop | September 19th @ 7:00 p.m. (both games) Game A at Scotiabank Arena Game B at Bell Centre |
| Broadcast | In Toronto: TSN 2/4 (TV), TSN 1050 (Radio) In Montreal: Sportsnet 1 (TV) Both games on Sportsnet+ Online |
| Gameday Odds | Game A Maple Leafs -115, Canadiens -105 Maple Leafs -1.5 +205, Canadiens +1.5 -250 Goal Line 6.5 (Over +100, Under -120) Odds for Leafs @ Montreal (“B”) currently unavailable |
About the Maple Leafs (0-0-0)
There’s a lot of excitement in the air in Toronto today. It’s still premature to scream about a return to the contender class, but if nothing else, things should be much better than they were last year. The team appears to be healthier, a coaching change should bring a welcome refresh to their style of play, and a lucky bounce of the lottery balls amidst a year of darkness has given the fanbase a new young phenom to watch starting tonight. As well, they’ve added a bunch of new players in various roles to compliment their ambitions. If nothing else, Toronto is eager to climb a few rungs back up the ladder, even if the top is far from a sure aspiration to this point.
Most of the guys you want to see either make their debuts (Gavin McKenna, Darren Raddysh, Sergei Bobrovsky, among others) or returns (Auston Matthews, Chris Tanev) will feature in the game played at home (“Game A”). For those who would rather get a look at the bottom half of the NHL lineup or more of the likely members of this year’s Toronto Marlies, Game B in Montreal will give you your fix.
About the Canadiens (0-0-0)
If the Leafs are looking to rebound from falling down the ladder for a year, the Canadiens are chasing an opportunity to maintain position or keep climbing after sprinting faster than expected up the rungs last season. While there was a lot of positivity about their younger and early-vet core going into 2025/26, no one expected a 106-point season and run to the Eastern Conference Final.
Their underlying shot metrics suggest that maybe there was some good fortune along the way, but with the likes of Lane Hutson, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov on the upswing and players like Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Noah Dobson in their early-mid prime years, it’s hard to discount the possibility of development keeping them at least on the same track. Interestingly, Montreal didn’t really add much to their roster over the summer, trusting the group to figure things out together. A strong contract structure gives the team no shortage of flexibility if they feel ready to go for it at any point. For now, though, the goal is to confirm that they are what they were last year.
Projected Lineups
| Leafs in Toronto (Game A) | Leafs in Montreal (Game B) |
|---|---|
| Matthew Knies – Auston Matthews – Jack Roslovic Gavin McKenna – John Tavares – William Nylander Bo Groulx – Tinus Luc Klobar – Harry Nansi Steven Lorentz – Jacob Quillan – Zack MacEwen Jake McCabe – Chris Tanev Emil Andrae – Darren Raddysh Marshall Rifai – Ben Danford | Easton Cowan – Nick Paul – Colton Sissons Brendan Duhaime – Teddy Blueger – Vinni Lettieri Brandon Brisson – Logan Shaw – Ryan Tverberg Michael Pezzetta – Henrik Rybinski – Marc Johnstone Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Nick Blankenburg Dakota Mermis – Troy Stecher Noah Chadwick – Cole McWard |
| Starting Goalie: Sergei Bobrovsky (2025/26: 27-23-1, 3.07 GAA, 0.877 SV%) Backing Up: Anthony Stolarz | Starting Goalie: Artur Akhtyamov (2025/26: 0-2-0, 4.76 GAA, 0.877 SV%) Backing Up: Samuel Hlavaj, Ken Appelby |
Due to split-squad nature, we’ll focus just on the two Toronto lineups tonight. Obviously, the group playing at home is the one that most will be excited to see, featuring the projected top six, Raddysh, Tanev, and Bobrovsky, but there are storylines to chase in both.
Last Matchup
It feels like these two teams usually close their seasons against each other, or at least come close to doing so, but there wasn’t really much of a bookend this year. Their last matchup came on March 10th, with about 20 games left in each teams’ seasons. This one went in the Habs’ favour. Oliver Kapanen give them the lead less than five minutes in and Montreal never looked back from there, despite the Leafs having the 32-18 shot edge. William Nylander scored Toronto’s only goal in the second period.
Injuries Of Note
Everyone’s coming in pretty healthy. For Toronto, the only significant injury is Max Domi, whose surgery complications this summer have his career in jeopardy. I’m noting him in this first pre-game and will mention him again before the regular season opener, but unless we get an update that steers him towards returning to play, I won’t bring him up in this section every time out of respect for the situation.
Montreal’s only injury of note belongs to Kaiden Guhle, who is still recovering from a surgery on his adductor muscle. The latest update from the Canadiens suggests that he’s about a month away from game action. This could mean some extra pep in the step of the bottom-of-lineup defencemen tonight, as they jockey to start the year in the sixth spot and give themselves a better chance at regular usage throughout the year.
Streaks Of Note
It’s the first game of the preseason. There are no streaks to worry about yet, this section is just here because I intend on having it here during the regular season and want to set the tone for the format right away.
Since we’re here, though, Toronto’s most productive players in the final ten games of 2025/26 were John Tavares and William Nylander, who both play in the home game together tonight. Tavares had six goals and five assists in his final ten games, his goal total leading the team for that stretch. Nylander led the team in assists (7) points (12), and shots on goal (29) over that same stretch.
Montreal’s hot and cold is even more difficult to put a finger on, as they had their playoff run. Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson co-led the team in points with 16 in 19, while Alex Newhook led them in goals with 7, including two Game 7 series-winners. With that said, the team struggled mightily offensively against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions in Carolina, so even if a stick could stay hot through a months-long gap, most of them weren’t warm to begin with.
Early Thoughts
It’s good to have hockey back. Both of these games will likely favour the home teams as both save their top talent for their own rinks, but never underestimate the power of hunger in preseason hockey. It’s easy to say the stars will light these games up, but they’re not the ones playing for spots in the depth chart.
On a more meta note, covering a split-squad situation isn’t exactly the easiest, so we’ll likely tackle these one game at a time, starting with Game A and then looking over to Game B.
Header photo via @mapleleafs on X/Twitter
