Habs and Leafs: Rediscovering the rivalry
French-English relations in Canada have been mired in conflict since the earliest settlers arrived from across the Atlantic Ocean. There have been centuries of arguments, which occasionally erupted in violence. Everyone’s a little more civilized these days, but the modern version of the feud plays out every season on NHL rinks in Toronto and Montreal.
The rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens, one of the oldest and most passionate in professional sports, dates all the way back to 1917, when Toronto was still known as the Arenas.
The two clubs have played each other over 700 times during the regular season and have gone to battle in 15 playoff series, five of which were for the glory of hoisting the Stanley Cup.
However, the rivalry between the two teams has sagged in recent times. The Leafs and Habs haven’t met in the postseason since 1979, and the most meaningful games between the two rarely even have playoff implications. Sure, the two teams played in the last game of the 2006 season to see who would make the playoffs but, ultimately, neither would as a New York Islanders shootout victory slammed the door on both.
Since the Leafs’ last Stanley Cup victory, the Canadiens have won 10 championship, whereas the Leafs have failed to make the final once. All this time spent travelling in opposite directions has led the Canadiens to develop a greater animosity with another current Northeast division opponent, the Boston Bruins.
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Amazingly, Montreal and Boston have met in the playoffs 32 times, seven times for the Stanley Cup. This has helped develop the contempt between the two squads that often pours onto the ice, as it did in a violent February matchup this past season.
Kevin van Steendelaar of SB Nation‘s Habs Eyes on the Prize told The Good Point that the Bruins have usurped the Leafs as the Habs’ primary rival, thanks to their many playoff battles, especially those in recent years. The rivalry with the Leafs just doesn’t possess the same enmity.
“Intensity wise, I feel [the rivalry with the Leafs] is nowhere near what it once was and that’s due to the lack of playoff confrontations between the two clubs in the past 44 years,” van Steendelaar said.
Strictly going on most recent playoff opponents, the Leafs seem to have found another rival themselves.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Leafs played the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs four times in five years, but the rivalry ended up being one-sided – the Leafs dispatched the Sens each time.
Jason Orach, better known as Chemmy on The Leafs Nation and SB Nation‘s Pension Plan Puppets, points to this postseason domination by the Leafs as the exact reason why the Battle of Ontario isn’t as strong of a rivalry – there hasn’t been any real competition.
Orach also refuses to believe that the rivalry between the Leafs and Habs is disappearing. In fact, because of a young Leafs team poised to make a jump in the standings sometime soon, Orach doesn’t see the rivalry going anywhere.
“I don’t think the Leafs-Habs rivalry is dead. For me those are the big rivalry games I care about. Toronto-Montreal on Saturday night means everyone who cares about hockey is watching the two most storied teams in the league go to war once again,” Orach explained.
Although van Steendelaar feels the Leafs-Habs has lost some of its luster, he agrees the rivalry “is still there”, pointing to the close nature of the season series between the past few seasons as evidence.
It seems like regardless of the position either the Leafs or Habs find themselves in, fans can usually count on a close, hard-fought match-up that resembles two teams fighting atop the standings.
The rivalry between the Leafs and Habs certainly isn’t dead – the fact that the league continues to bookend the season with games between the two confirms as much – but it might be better characterized as dormant.
But watch a game between the two on a Saturday night and there is enough energy in the building to tell you that something’s still there between the two squads. With a Leafs team on the rise and a Canadiens squad who has made the playoffs the past few seasons, it seems the two long-time foes could be fighting for a playoff spot in the near future, maybe as early as this season.
Someday soon the Leafs-Habs will play for something more than pride, and on that day it will be apparent to all that the rivalry existed all these years, it just needed a spark to reignite it.
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