Canadiens thrown off being home team against Maple Leafs in Toronto

TORONTO -- During a 13-season NHL career, Carey Price has always turned left after exiting the Montreal Canadiens dressing room on his way to the ice at Scotiabank Arena.

So that's exactly what the Canadiens goalie did Tuesday for the start of Montreal's exhibition game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Only this time, he started to go the wrong way.

On this night, Montreal was the home team in Toronto, the hub city for the 12 Eastern Conference teams in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers. With the Canadiens using the Maple Leafs dressing room, Price understandably lost his bearings and didn't know he should have turned right.

Arena officials quickly ushered him in the correct direction.

For the Canadiens, it was part of a wild and wacky night that saw them occupying the home digs of their longtime rival.

"2020 has been strange, but this might have been the weirdest thing we've been through," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said after Montreal's 4-2 loss. "It was odd."

Teammate Phillip Danault did not enjoy the experience of preparing in a room where famous Maple Leafs of the past, like George Armstrong and Dave Keon, were honored.

"It was not a good feeling," the forward said. "It was definitely weird."

It was like that for the entire evening. From wearing their home red jerseys to sitting on the home bench to having their familiar Bell Centre goal song played when they scored, it was difficult for Montreal players to get accustomed to being at home away from home.

Montreal, the No. 12 seed in the Eastern Conference, starts its best-of-5 qualifier series against the No. 5 seed Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday as the designated road team for Games 1 and 2 at the neutral site. Toronto, the No. 8 seed, will play its best-of-5 qualifier series against the No. 9 seed Columbus Blue Jackets. It begins Sunday, with the Maple Leafs the designated home team for Games 1 and 2. The series winners will advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Maple Leafs captain John Tavares, who played the first nine seasons of his NHL career for the New York Islanders before signing with Toronto on July 1, 2018, didn't find being in the visitors dressing room all that unfamiliar. But he could understand how many of his teammates, not to mention the Canadiens, would find the setup strange, if not backward.

""I would assume, for them, it would be kind of weird getting dressed with Maple Leaf logos all over the locker room, and whatnot," Tavares said. "For me, I've dressed over in the visitors locker room before. The whole atmosphere is just different, considering what we're going through, and just everything about what it takes to play now, from our preparation to our daily life to those variables and circumstances, so you just kind of go with the flow and just try to focus on preparation as best you can.

"Definitely different, but like I said, I think we're just excited after a long layoff to have an opportunity to get to this point and play for the Stanley Cup and complete this season."