from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

With the Habs and us getting off to a great start, that’s two excited fan bases. We’re aware of that. It’s exciting for us as players too. They’re special rivalries that maybe we haven’t seen a lot of in the last few years," Jason Spezza says.

"We have a chance to kinda reignite those fan bases and the rivalry. As players, that’s a great opportunity.”...

Steel sharpens steel. So, surely the players themselves would like to use this Montreal-Toronto set to measure how good they really are. Right?

“You’re not going to like this answer, but I could really care less about what the Leafs are doing,” Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher said. “They're a very good team. They got their own storyline that they’re following.

“For us, it’s just about playing our game. Obviously, we were disappointed we lost the first game to them. Now it’s a chance to get a little revenge in that aspect.”

Toronto will roll into Bell Centre with two more wins and three more points, but Montreal holds a game in hand and a superior goal differential (+17).

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