BROSSARD, Que. — “You don’t need any help getting up for these games,” says Montreal Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw as he’s cooling down from a rigorous practice at the team’s south shore training facility.
The two-time Stanley Cup winner is no stranger to playing in the spotlight, and he’s no stranger to the Canadiens-Toronto Maple Leafs rivalry playing out on Hockey Night in Canada, either.
From his early days watching the teams play each other from home in Belleville, Ont., through his playing days in Montreal over the past season and a bit, Shaw’s been exposed to the modern-day chapter of the rivalry. He’s aware of which way the ice has tilted recently—Montreal has won its past 14 games against Toronto, 10 of them in regulation—and he also knows these aren’t the Leafs of his childhood.
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They’re not even the Leafs of last year, who shocked the hockey world by advancing to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and holding their own against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals.
The boys in blue and white come to town as the most offensively prolific team in the NHL; a four-line wrecking crew that’s become accustomed to cranking up the excitement level (sometimes to coach Mike Babcock’s chagrin, as it was during a humbling 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday). Led by 20-year-old, 40-goal man Auston Matthews and coach Babcock, who is widely considered to be the best in the game, they are a force to be reckoned with.
“They’re extremely skilled,” says Shaw. The statement is his abbreviated version of what Canadiens coach Claude Julien said about the Leafs this past Tuesday after Montreal lost 3-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks, who had lost 4-3 to the Leafs a night earlier after blowing a 3-1 lead in the third period.
“When you look at them… they’re young and they’re quick,” said Julien. “They have a lot of energy and they come out and they really wear teams down. We gotta make sure we’re fresh and ready for these guys. But at the same time, if you plan on playing on your heels against that team, they’ll eat you alive.
“We’re gonna have to be on our toes and it’s going to be us pushing them back with our speed, hopefully, and then playing with a little more energy…We need to respect the skill level and the youth of that team that has a lot of speed and energy, but at the same time we shouldn’t be fearing them; we should be finding ways to win hockey games. I think that we’ve shown at different times in the games we’ve played that we’re capable of doing that, but we’re really going to need a 60-minute effort on Saturday.”
There’s no question about it; the goal-starved Canadiens, who have only managed to find the back of the net a total of four times through four games, are going to have their hands full with a team that’s scored 22 times in just under 244 minutes of action.
Just shutting down Matthews, who has three goals and three assists, will be a chore on its own.
Julien got his first glimpse of Matthews at last year’s World Cup of Hockey and came away from the experience beyond impressed.
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“When you see him first-hand, he’s a big body and you could tell he was not intimidated by the competition,” said Julien on Friday. “What I’ve seen from him then—and now—is just a young player who’s grown in the confidence area, and the more he plays the more he knows how much he can do for himself and for his team. The same thing as [Edmonton Oilers star] Connor McDavid; those are young players who can carry their team just with their play. So I saw a guy, in my estimation, anyway, from what I could see from the outside, who’s a very humble player who just goes out there and works hard every day and wants to be the best he can be.”
In all those ways, Matthews is representing what the Leafs hope to be and what they appear to be evolving into.
It’s no wonder Shaw and the Canadiens are anxiously awaiting their chance to match up against them on hockey’s sacred day.
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