Maple Leafs, Canadiens fueling hopes they'll be playoff opponents

MONTREAL -- Dave Keon was admiring all the old Toronto Maple Leafs photos in the hallway outside the home dressing room at Scotiabank Arena this week when he noticed how many included the Montreal Canadiens.

The Hockey Hall of Famer played in five Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Canadiens during his illustrious career with the Maple Leafs. The highlight came in 1967 when the center won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after helping Toronto win the Cup with a 4-2 series victory against Montreal in the Final.
Keon would love to see the teams meet in the playoffs again, perhaps this season.
"It would be wonderful," the 78-year-old said. "It would bring back great memories."
He's not alone in that sentiment.
"I think it's a great thing for hockey if it does happen," Maple Leafs center John Tavares said. "It would be something special, especially since it hasn't happened in so long. We're talking almost a generation has passed. It would be pretty unique."
Toronto and Montreal have played each other in 15 postseason series, but none since 1979. If the season ended Saturday, the Maple Leafs (33-17-3), who are second in the Atlantic Division, would play the Canadiens (31-18-6), who are one point behind them in third place, in the Eastern Conference First Round.
The prospect of a postseason matchup, though premature with a third of the season remaining, has created a heightened sense of anticipation for the game between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens on at Bell Centre on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, SN1, CITY, TVAS, NHL.TV) as part of Hockey Day in Canada.
"I've been involved in the Montreal-Toronto thing for a while and part of it since I've been here is that both teams haven't been good," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said Friday. "This is the first year both teams look like real hockey clubs."
Babcock, who's in his fourth season as Maple Leafs coach, said he was impressed with the Canadiens' 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. Toronto and Montreal each come into the game with a three-game winning streak.

Tavares has played 14 games at Bell Centre, all of them with the New York Islanders. This will be his first as a member of the Maple Leafs.
"It's going to be great," said the 28-year-old, who signed with his hometown team as a free agent July 1. "I've never experienced it before. Obviously it's been going on for a long time. That history of it. But a lot of people have told me what a great atmosphere it is to play in. Given where both teams are in the standings, it will add to the intensity, which is always a good thing. I'm really looking forward to it."
Montreal coach Claude Julien said the history between the teams makes Canadiens-Maple Leafs games different for the players.
"Even those players that are here now still realize how fun it is to play against each other," Julien said. "… I think as fans in Canada they love seeing those two teams play each other."
Canadiens forward Phillip Danault didn't want to get into a potential playoff series with the Maple Leafs, but said, "We used to watch these games as kids. … They are close to us in the standings. It will be fun."
This week teammate Zach Hyman gave Tavares an idea of what to expect. Tavares and Hyman each grew up in the Toronto area cheering for the Maple Leafs.
"I told [Tavares] it would be awesome," said Hyman, a forward in his fourth season with Toronto. "I told him, 'Just wait until we go to Montreal. It's the best away atmosphere.' You don't get Toronto vs. Montreal on every Saturday night, whether it be in Montreal or in Toronto.
"It's special. It's going to be loud, loud, loud, loud. Every shift, you have so much energy. It's incredible."
Hyman was asked what a playoff series against the Canadiens would be like.
"We've got a long way to go before that happens so I'm not going to make any predictions or anything," he said. "All I know is that it's already crazy when we go there in the regular season, so imagine that multiplied by 10.
"I can't imagine what the atmosphere was like the last time Montreal and Toronto met in the postseason."
Scotty Bowman can. The Hall of Fame coach was with the Canadiens in the 1979 playoffs.
"We had the better team," Bowman said. "But they made it tough on us."
Montreal won the best-of-7 series in the NHL Quarterfinals 4-0, outscoring Toronto 19-10. The Canadiens went on to defeat the New York Rangers in five games in the Final to win the Stanley Cup for the fourth consecutive year.
"The last two games went to overtime," he said of the series against the Maple Leafs. "Their coach, Roger Neilson, had a game plan that gave us some issues. It was the swarm. They didn't cover the points. The puck would go into the corner. We had one guy on the puck, they had two. We had two guys on the puck, they had three. Again, we were the better team, but they gave us all we could handle."
Bowman said he could never have predicted at the time that the two teams would go four decades without playing each other in the postseason.
"It's hard to fathom," he said. "I don't know all the reasons. There are a lot more teams now. And I'm not sure it will happen this season either. Montreal has a tough schedule, 16 of their final 27 games are on the road.
"The fans can dare to dream though."
They already are.
NHL.com correspondent Sean Farrell contributed to this report