Game 1: Canadiens 2, Leafs 3 (OT)

So, this new run and gun two-man forechecking fast-skating style the Canadiens employ, with the defencemen enjoined to push the pace and pass the puck up the ice and not cross-ice, does it remind you of a similar style the Canadiens used recently?  The much-reviled Michel Therrien system who wanted the defencemen to clear the zone, to make a good first pass, to bang it off the boards/glass if necessary and let Lars Eller and Dale Weise chase after it, turn it over in the neutral zone and go on the attack?  Because weren't we pissing and moaning how we wanted a puck control system, how we wanted to cycle the puck more, how Claude Julien was so much better at that?  How did that go for us last season, puck control and five-man breakouts, those Holy Grails?

I'll come clean, if I haven't made this obvious, that Claude Julien is not my cup of tea.  The Boston Liar is forever tainted in my eyes, he shouldn't have been allowed to come anywhere near our team after his disgusting tenure with the Bruins.

I'll give him his due though: he had the guts to renounce his preferred system, to evolve, to adopt one that may not have been his first choice.  We'll see how much Dominique Ducharme and Kirk Muller and Luke Richardson played into this, what influence they had, but Mr. Julien did say that Dominique Ducharme's hire had a lot to do with his youth and energy, his fresh ideas, his innovative approach with Hockey Canada, his two successful stints with the World Junior team, and a silver and a gold medal.

So we lost talent and size, things we wanted on paper, when we sent Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk packing.  Something I wouldn't have had the guts to do as a scaredy-cat risk-averse armchair GM, but Marc Bergevin did anyway.  He didn't get a king's ransom back either, he didn't get offers he couldn't refuse, but at first blush he got decent pieces, certainly more than the Senators did for Erik Karlsson, more than the 'Canes got from Buffalo for Jeff Skinner.

What we have now, with our complement of newly acquired Thomas Tatars and Max Domis, with our holdover Artturi Lehkonens and Phillip Danaults, is four lines of skaters and forecheckers, a world away from the Steve Otts and Dwight Kings of a few seasons back.  The talking heads on TSN were saying that the Canadiens could roll four lines and send wave after wave of similar forwards, who could put the pedal down all game.  Marc Denis on RDS was saying that it would be hard to linematch against the Canadiens, since the lines would operate similarly, there wouldn't be a Pacioretty line you tried to stop and then the rest was easy.  Maybe hopeful words, but it provides a reason to pay attention this early season at least.

Because aside from that, the game went according to plan for this cynical fan, really.  Carey Price made a few miraculous saves, kept us in the game, the Canadiens worked hard and peppered the Leafs goalie with shots, but ultimately Auston Matthews and John Tavares are too much for us to handle, with our spindly 18-year-old franchise centre, and they scored three goals to win the game for Toronto.  We get a moral victory, and a 2019 Draft-position-deleterious single point.

The next few games, I'll try to pay more attention to the new guys on the blue line, Mike Reilly and Xavier Ouellet, who were encouragingly effective in this game, and wait to see what happens when David Schlemko and eventually Shea Weber are ready for action.