Leafs Lose Home Opener

Fans who planned the parade following the Leafs season opening win over Detroit got hit with a dose of reality tonight.

Montreal trounced Toronto 6-1 in the Leafs home opener. Toronto wasn't able to bounce back from Montreal's first two goals, scored 99 seconds apart. Roman Hamrlik scored at 11:00 in the opening period, followed by Alexei Kovalev.

Power play problems plagued Toronto's second period performance. The Habs potted three goals in under 5:00 - all with the man advantage. Alex Tanguay's backhand was sandwiched between Sergei Kostitsyn's snapper and wrist-shot goals. Guillaume Latendresse also scored for Montreal. The Leafs' lone marker came from Jason Blake, who drew criticism from some fans for his goal celebration.

Montreal was the more physical team but the only Leaf to try and send a message was Dominic Moore. The normally calm Moore went into the sin bin for double minors after expressing his displeasure at the Habs manhandling of his team.

Toronto again had pivot problems. They won 29 faceoffs to Montreal's 40. Only one Habs' centre, veteran Robert Lang was below 50%. Contrast that with Toronto - only Mikhail Grabovski and Matt Stajan were at 50% The lone Leaf above 50% was Jonn Mitchell, who only took one faceoff.

Next up for Buds are the St. Louis Blues on Monday. It's a 1PM start time due to the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday.