Maple Leafs and Canadiens open season with new chapter of historic rivalry

For the 24th time in their franchises’ history and the seventh straight year, the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs open the season facing each other. The opener at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto will be the first of their 84 regular-season games for the 2026-27 season and is expected to draw major attention from both teams’ fans.

According to the NHL, Montreal finished last season well, reaching three rounds in the playoffs, and relies on a new core of players: captain Nick Suzuki with 101 points last season, forward Cole Caufield who scored 50 goals, defenseman Lane Hutson, the 2025 Calder Trophy winner, and the coaching staff under Martin St. Louis. With reinforcements like Chris Kreider and a steady goaltender, the Canadiens’ objective is no longer just playoff participation but competing for the franchise’s 25th Stanley Cup title, the first since 1993. Toronto, on the other hand, which missed the playoffs last season, enters the season with different expectations: winning the first pick of the 2026 draft, Gavin McKenna, significant roster reinforcements including veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, captain Auston Matthews and William Nylander as goal sources, as well as new head coach Jim Hiller.

These two teams, founding members of the league since 1917, have a deep rivalry and passionate fan bases across the country. Of the meetings to date, this will be the 777th regular-season game between them; Montreal holds the edge with 370 wins to Toronto’s 304 and 14 ties, with 88 results level before later decisions.

The history of the clashes includes well-known early episodes: in Toronto’s first season opener as the St. Patricks on Dec. 17, 1921, Babe Dye and Corb Denneny each scored two goals in the 5-2 win over the Canadiens, with goaltender Ivan Mitchell defeating Georges Vezina. In the decades that followed there were winning streaks on both sides; among recent statistical features is Toronto’s record in home openers, which with Auston Matthews as captain have been unblemished — ten straight wins since his top-level debut.

In the current season the teams will have at least 83 more games against various opponents, but at the start of the week everyone is focused on the return of this classic rivalry to the Scotiabank Arena stage; as the NHL notes, for fans of both cities this matchup remains more than a sports game — it is a piece of shared history that restarts every season.