The Toronto Maple Leafs held an optional skate at the Bell Centre on Wednesday.
The Leafs and Canadiens have held the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds in the North Division since Feb. 19. The forever rivals are on a collision course to meet in the playoffs for the first time in what seems like forever.
"That will be pretty special if that's the case," said defenceman Morgan Rielly. "But, that being said, we got to prepare for any possible matchup."
The Original Six clubs haven’t met in the postseason since 1979.
"Trying to focus one game at a time," said winger Alex Galchenyuk, "but you always have those thoughts in the back of your mind that it could happen."
Both teams have a chance to send a message before a potential playoff showdown as the Leafs and Canadiens will meet four times over the next 11 days.
"They're very important [games]," said Rielly. "We did a good job when we played those two games against the Jets and we have some areas of our game that we’re proud of that we want to build on. We want to make sure we're keeping focus on the process and we’re playing the right way and playing these guys a bunch is a good opportunity to put that to the test. I think we'll be ready for it."
"I'm sure it's going to be playoff hockey," said centre Auston Matthews. "It's going to be tight, not a lot of room out there. You're going to have to earn your chances and stay patient all night."
Toronto has won four of six meetings with Montreal this season, including two of three at the Bell Centre.
"The games have been quite close," coach Sheldon Keefe cautioned. "They've had their way with us at different times, too. Each game is its own animal. We just have to make sure we're ready from the start today. We weren't the last time we were in this building."
The Leafs fell behind 2-0 and ultimately lost 4-2 on April 12 in Montreal only hours after general manager Kyle Dubas offered the group a big vote of confidence at the trade deadline. Jack Campbell suffered his first loss of the season that night, ending a record-setting run. He'll be back between the pipes tonight.
Keefe isn't expected to make any changes to a lineup that played with a lot of emotion during a pair of wins in Winnipeg last week. The physical element will be important against the Canadiens, who sit second in hits this season.
"We talked about competitiveness from day one," said captain John Tavares. "I know Sheldon has made that a big focus ... just how establishing physicality and competitiveness has got to be a big part of who we are and the way we want to play."
"There's been growth," said Rielly. "Part of that is new players coming in that play a certain style and just the group playing to our structure. That's an area that we talked about a lot in the off-season and, as the year has gone on, that's an area of our game we want to build on and grow into."
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While the Leafs played well as a group in sweeping a pair of games in Winnipeg, Galchenyuk didn't like his game.
"I could've definitely [brought] more and done better," he admitted.
But the former Hab didn't want to go into detail.
"It's not like I'm going to sit here and overthink that I have to do this better or this better," he said. "I know I can bring more and play better than I did the last few games, so that's where my mindset is."