All is calm, all is well

MONTREAL - The Toronto Maple Leafs are to be forgiven for feeling a little anxiety when they found out their starting goaltender, James Reimer, would not return to the game after the first period.

And if that wasn't bad enough, his replacement, Jonas Gustavsson, who got shelled for six goals the other night in Boston, allowed the first shot he faced to beat him as the Leafs fell behind 2-1 just 29 seconds into the second period.

It certainly didn't look good for the Leafs.

However, if you are a card-carrying member of Leafs Nation, the story had a happy ending. Despite allowing three goals over 40 minutes, Gustavsson recorded his first victory of the year as the Maple Leafs overcame three one-goal deficits to beat the Canadiens 5-4 in overtime before a wild crowd that included many Toronto fans. Former Hab Mikhail Grabovski sealed the deal with a splendid individual effort making a little dipsy-doodle move at the top of the crease 1:23 into overtime to beat Carey Price who played superbly for the Habs.

Reimer, making his first road start of the year after going 4-0-1 at home, was clocked by Montreal's captain Brian Gionta in the first period. While he remained in the game, Reimer was checked by team doctors between periods and it was decided he should take the rest of the night off. Gionta, by the way, will not face supplemental discipline for the head shot. The NHL ruled it to be incidental contact with no targeting of the head.

Toronto coach Ron Wilson spoke about the decision to remove his starting goalie from the game and in doing so, you get the sense, though he doesn't come right out and say it, that Wilson thinks Gionta should have been suspended, or at the very least, fined.

"James got an elbow in the head and I guess you could say he had whiplash-type symptoms," Wilson said. "He could have finished the game, but this early on in the season we didn't want to risk it. That was clearly an elbow to the head; I don't know if you'd call that a head shot, but when you knock the goalie's mask off... anyway, he should be okay and we'll see how he feels (Sunday)."

The Leafs will play the Flyers in Philadelphia Monday night.

"Once the Monster went in there we figured he might as well finish the game," Wilson added. "He played pretty well."

Wilson said he felt no sense of panic on the bench after Gustavsson allowed the early goal in the second period. In fact, playing strong after falling behind has been a trademark for Wilson's team in Toronto.

"Not with this team," Wilson said. "I think everybody wants to fight for each other and if they did anything, they really battled. I don't think for the next seven or eight minutes Montreal even got a shot. We tightened up and helped the Monster get settled. He probably only knew for two or three minutes before the period started that he was even going into the game. He might have been caught off guard a little bit."

You really have to wonder when the Maple Leafs planned to go back to Gustavsson after he laid an egg in Boston. Reimer is clearly the No. 1 goalie and there's a good chance he'll play the majority of the games. When Reimer went down, they really had no choice. For his part, Gustavsson was happy to get back between the pipes, even though he said he didn't care for the circumstances with Reimer being injured.

"You always have to try to be ready, of course, but I asked James how he felt and he thought he could keep on playing," Gustavsson said. "I thought he was going to stay in the game, and it's too bad that he couldn't."

Gustavsson said he did not get rattled after allowing the quick goal to Andrei Kostitsyn.

"You can't really think about that goal," he said. "You do you best to prevent them from scoring, but if it happens you have to move on. I trust my teammates to get a couple for me, too, so I just concentrate on stopping the next shot."

Toronto's Mathew Lombardi continues to get stronger with each game after missing all but two games last season. The Montreal native was impressed with Gustavsson's persistence.

"He came in and I thought he played great," Lombardi said. "He made some big saves. He showed a lot of character and stuck with it. The guys all night showed character. It was one of those games where we knew the Canadiens were going to come out and play with a lot of emotion and we just stuck with it."

NOTES: Former Leafs defenceman Hal Gill was honored before the game for having reached the 1,000 game plateau... Center Tyler Bozak missed the game with a sore foot after blocking a shot in Toronto's 6-2 loss in Boston Wednesday night. Bozak took a few laps around the rink at the morning skate, but quickly left the ice because of the pain…

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy will cover the Toronto Maple Leafs for sportsnet.ca for the 2011/12 season.