Game 626
Maple Leafs 5, Canadiens 4
Saturday, January 9, 1993
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
It was a slow, dignified, dramatic walk across the Forum ice surface.
It was as though Pat Burns was demonstrating that you can coach and then quit the Montréal Canadiens and survive.
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Game 625
Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 4
Saturday, February 8, 1992
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
In a way, the manner in which the winning goal was scored made perfect sense.
After all, if the Toronto Maple Leafs, until six weeks ago one of the worst outfits in the NHL, can suddenly win seven of eight games, why can’t Ric Nattress score the 21st goal of his 10-year career from centre ice on one of the finest goaltenders in hockey?
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Game 624
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 1
Monday, December 9, 1991
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
The month of May is usually the time when hockey’s money goalies display their stuff, in the battle for the Stanley Cup.
Continue reading “Game 624 – Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 1”
Game 623
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 3
Thursday, October 3, 1991
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
The vintage uniforms may have been classic items, but the game that kicked off the National Hockey League’s 75th season was not, as the Montréal Canadiens edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 at the Forum last night.
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Game 622
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 3
Saturday, February 23, 1991
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
There’s certainly something to be said for tradition.
Tradition, that is, as in Montréal Canadiens-Toronto Maple Leafs hockey encounters, even with the Maple Leafs just one notch from the bottom of the NHL standings and the Habs still Stanley Cup contenders.
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Game 621
Canadiens 7, Maple Leafs 3
Wednesday, January 23, 1991
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Tom Watt looked just about as mystified as a child watching a magic show.
His Maple Leafs, it seems, have disappeared on him. The head coach has a few guesses, but he admits to not knowing exactly why.
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Game 620
Maple Leafs 4, Canadiens 1
Wednesday, December 12, 1990
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
A little passion returned to Maple Leaf Gardens last night.
The occasion was a glimpse of a once-great rivalry that has gone the way of several other national institutions, a victim of greed, short-sightedness and an unhealthy preoccupation with the bottom line.
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Game 619
Canadiens 5, Maple Leafs 3
Saturday, January 27, 1990
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
The ammunition ran out.
That, in its simplest form, is the bottom line to the Leafs’ 5-3 loss at the Gardens last night to the Montréal Canadiens which ended Toronto’s win streak at a season-high five games..
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Game 618
Maple Leafs 7, Canadiens 4
Saturday, December 9, 1989
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
Reunions are supposed to be happy times and last night definitely ranks as one of the more cheery occasions on the Leaf calendar of late.
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Game 617
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 3 (OT)
Saturday, November 18, 1989
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
This was a Saturday Night Special.
Not a classic, by any means, but nonetheless special.
Continue reading “Game 617 – Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 3 (OT)”
Game 616
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 3
Saturday, January 21, 1989
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
“They didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves.” “The referee beat us.”
Players often utter such cliches after their team loses.
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Game 615
Canadiens 5, Maple Leafs 3
Saturday, January 14, 1989
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
Invariably, the judgment will be that finesse won over muscle.
Russ Courtnall 2, John Kordic 0.
Continue reading “Game 615 – Canadiens 5, Maple Leafs 3”
Game 614
Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 2
Monday, October 17, 1988
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
It was supposed to be Daniel Marois’ homecoming. His friend and confidant Vincent Damphousse, however, stole the show.
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Game 613
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 2
Saturday, December 26, 1987
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
It wouldn’t take a stranger more than five minutes of chatting with Maple Leafs coach John Brophy to realize his hatred of losing.
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Game 612
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 1
Monday, November 9, 1987
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Imagine, if you can, Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard smiling after a loss.
Believe it, sports fans, it happened here last night after H.B.’s Leafs dropped a 3-1 decision to the Montréal Canadiens.
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Game 611
Canadiens 10, Maple Leafs 3
Wednesday, October 21, 1987
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
Defence is the Montréal Canadiens’ trademark now. Check, check, check. Grind, grind, grind.
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Game 610
Canadiens 9, Maple Leafs 4
Saturday, March 21, 1987
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Hunger is apparently not a problem that gnaws at the stomachs of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Defenceman Bill Root unintentionally touched on that note last night in praising the Montréal Canadiens, who blasted the Leafs 9-4 before 18,072 spectators at the Forum.
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Game 609
Canadiens 2, Maple Leafs 1
Monday, January 12, 1987
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
The Toronto Maple Leafs have had enough trouble this season winning games on the road.
So, as far as they were concerned, the last thing they needed was for the referee to side with the home team in a close contest.
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Game 608
Maple Leafs 7, Canadiens 4
Thursday, October 9, 1986
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
“I B’Leaf” said the button on the lapel of actor / comedian John Candy’s suit.
After two decades of unbelievable chaos, what the Toronto Maple Leafs need to do more than anything else is start believing in themselves.
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Game 607
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 2 (OT)
Saturday, January 25, 1986
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Bobby Smith said it and the words were echoed by several of his Montréal Canadien mates.
“We see the way the Maple Leafs play against us and wonder what they’re doing in 20th place,” Smith said.
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Game 606
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 2
Wednesday, January 1, 1986
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
The Maple Leafs were shorthanded, a patchwork assembly of incumbents and call-ups, because of a 10-man injury list.
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Game 605
Canadiens 6, Maple Leafs 3
Saturday, December 7, 1985
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
It was once the quintessential National Hockey League confrontation.
But the young Toronto Maple Leafs of 1985, a team struggling to regain respectability, aren’t quite ready to recreate the rivalry with the Montréal Canadiens that conjures up memories of “The Rocket” and Syl Apps, “The Big M” and Jean Béliveau, Davey Keon and “The Pocket Rocket.”
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Game 604
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 2 (OT)
Sunday, February 10, 1985
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
Oh, well…one out of two ain’t bad.
On the other hand, what’s truly bad is that after losing deservedly 6-2 on Saturday, the Canadiens lost a 3-2 game in overtime last night they should have won laughing.
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Game 603
Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 2
Saturday, February 9, 1985
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
If the magic of television didn’t exist, hockey fans in Toronto would figure that the scores and descriptions of games the Maple Leafs play on the road were fiction, the product of some fertile imagination.
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Game 602
Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 4
Monday, November 19, 1984
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
It was one for the workmen.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ 6-4 win over the Montréal Canadiens was no masterpiece, but from the reaction of the players who ended a 10-game winless streak, one might have expected to see the Stanley Cup wheeled onto the Forum ice.
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Two Solitudes 