A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: 3 Keys To Victory over Toronto Maple Leafs

By Ken MacMillan

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 02: Tyler Toffoli Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 02: Tyler Toffoli Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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MONTREAL, QC – FEBRUARY 10: Joel Armia Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC – FEBRUARY 10: Joel Armia Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /

Balance

The Canadiens can’t boast about their superstars the way many other teams in Canada can. The Leafs have Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. The Canadiens just don’t have anyone who can score as much as any of those players.

Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Petry have been keeping up with Nylander and Tavares thus far, but I don’t expect those two Habs players to continue scoring at a point per game pace all year long.

What the Canadiens do have is tremendous depth. While the Maple Leafs are trying to make Jimmy Vesey work as a top six winger and will likely give Alex Galchenyuk a chance to play on the second line, the Habs simply don’t have room for players like that on their roster at all.

Without injuries, the Habs have to choose to make either Corey Perry or Paul Byron (or Tomas Tatar) a healthy scratch. I think it is safe to say Byron could beat out Pierre Engvall for a third line role if he was on the Maple Leafs.

The Maple Leafs are routinely playing Matthews and Marner over 22 minutes per night. This leaves very few minutes for the Leafs fourth liners as they all average less than ten minutes per night. This allows the Habs to have an extra gear in the third period that the Leafs can’t match.

The Habs came back from down 1-0 after the second period to win 2-1 in their last meeting. This was reminiscent of last season when the Canadiens outscored the Leafs 8-3 in the third periods of their three contests. A deep, balanced approach will give the Habs the upper hand as the game moves along.

Rolling all four lines like they usually do, and taking advantage of the fact they haven’t played in six days, should give the Canadiens an advantage later in tonight’s game.

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