Montreal at Toronto

Toronto hasn't won the Stanley Cup since 1967, but its fans are more optimistic than ever that the Maple Leafs can go deep in the Stanley Cup playoffs with the addition of center John Tavares, who signed a seven-year contract. Toronto's offensive nucleus includes Austin Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander and each of them finished with at least 60 points in 2017-18. The Leafs do need improvement on defense and will again rely heavily on the goaltending of Frederik Andersen as goalies Curtis McElhinney and Calvin Pickard are gone having been claimed off waivers. The Leafs won all four meetings with Montreal last season and they are 23-8 their last 31 home games. The Canadiens lost 21 of their last 26 road games and they finished the season losing 27 of their last 36 versus Eastern Conference teams. What's worse, they don't appear to have made much improvement in the offseason and Carey Price inexplicably comes off the worst season of his career in goal. Play the Maple Leafs.