Leafs know they face ''trap game'' scenario tonight against the Habs in Montreal
The 3rd place Toronto Maple Leafs come into tonight's matchup against the 26th place Montreal Canadiens in what can only be described as a ''trap game''. As Leafs fans, we've become very familiar with the term, but for those who are unaware of what I mean, it's simply that the odds are so heavily stacked in the Leafs' favour that they come into the game believing their own hype and allow their opponent to catch them by surprise and what often happens is that the Leafs don't really begin to turn it on until it's already too late.
We've seen it this year against the Habs, in the first game of the year, and again against teams like Anaheim, Arizona, San Jose and Detroit. The Leafs have a bit of a penchant for "playing down to their opponents" and it has bitten them in the butt more times than we can even count. They need to avoid having that happen tonight in Montreal.
The Leafs come in as -380 favourites tonight against the Habs, who have already lost 2022 1st overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky for what will likely be the rest of the season to a lower body injury, but the bad news for the Habs didn't stop there. Just this morning, the Canadiens announced that Cole Caufield has also been shut down for the season due to a shoulder injury that requires surgery. As a result, the Habs will be playing short one forward and will go with 7 defensemen against Toronto.
The "trap game" scenario is something that Leafs captain John Tavares is very aware of coming in to tonight's game in Montreal. JT stated following today's morning skate that his team "can't take our foot off the gas" on Saturday. He knows that every point matters from here until the end of the year. The race for home ice advantage in round 1 is on the line. Tampa is currently just 4 points back of the Leafs and have two games in hand over the Buds and the two Atlantic Division rivals have just one matchup remaining against one another this season (April 11th) in what will be both teams' 2nd last game of the year.
With Tavares and the Leafs knowing full well that they can't avoid to leave any points on the table right now, I hope we see the Buds start on time tonight against the Habs. Granted, I don't think any of the bottom teams are in any race to win games with Connor Bedard ripe for the picking this summer, but there's just something about these Leafs/Habs matchups that both teams tend to get out of bed for and I'm sure the Habs would love to play spoiler for the Leafs at any opportunity. No matchup in the NHL is an "easy out" and the Leafs would serve themselves well to remember that tonight when the puck drops at the Bell Centre.
