MONTREAL -- Those Montrealers who rushed to purchase lawn chairs and some chalk to mark out their spot on Sainte-Catherine St. for a potential upcoming Stanley Cup parade may want to keep their receipts, take a breath and get ready for a potential bounce back game from the Toronto Maple Leafs, which now must beat the Montreal Canadiens to avoid a very uphill climb in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

The "forever rivals" face off at 7 p.m., and with all due respect to the Battle of Florida between the Panthers and Lighting, or the last-man-standing Washington-Boston brawl or the TV ratings dream matchup between the Minnesota Wild and the Vegas Golden Knights, Habs-Leafs is the juiciest series of the bunch in Round 1.

...and it just got interesting

Leading 1-0, the Canadiens have the Leafs right where they want them, and, to highlight the glaringly obvious, Game 2 is very important with all the pressure on the team in blue-and-white with a history of having to swap their skates for golf cleats after round one of the playoffs for over a decade-and-a-half.

REGULAR SEASON, SHMEGULAR SEASON

As Game 1 and so many series in playoffs past have shown, the points gained in the regular season don't carry forward into the playoffs.

...just ask the 2020 Pittsburgh Penguins, 2010 Washington Capitals or the 1982 Edmonton Oilers.

Heck, ask this year's Oilers fans how they're feeling.

Though no one outside of the deluded and inebriated hordes wandering empty parking lots screaming at the sun can suggest the Leafs don't have talent, it is worth remembering that this is the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Last year they should have won, and then there were those series against that yellow-and-black team from Massachusetts.

Pressure is clearly on the Leafs and nerves are likely high among the blue face-painted crowd as the team from southern Ontario looks to win a series for the first time since 2004.

REVENGE OR RALLY

It's up to the Leafs how they're going to play this.

After Leafs captain John Tavares was stretchered off with a concussion after Corey Perry ran into him inadvertently, Nick Foligno fought Perry despite the refs having words with him before the tussle.

No one liked it, and it did nothing to motivate the Leafs.

They still lost.

The Leafs, however, will surely want to rally for their hometown captain in an actual productive way Saturday, but bet on someone (Wayne Simmonds?) targeting Perry again.

If they go revenge, meh, Perry can probably take it.

If they go the rally route, Habs need to be ready to weather the storm.

Oh, and former Hab could-have-been-a-contender Alex Galchenyuk is in for Tavares. Speaking of a player with something to prove to a few people wering red sweaters. Yikes.

CAREYING THE LOAD

No Habs fan with long-term (or even short-term) memory intact needs any reminding that the Canadiens have often put one too many stones on the back of their netminders in years past.

From Roy-to-Theodore-to-Halak-to-Price, the "don't worry, he saves everything" game plan has been deployed more than once by the tricolore and it might be best to avoid it this year.

That No. 34 in blue with the awful (or heroic depending on your dirt squirrel appreciation level) moustache and wicked shot may yet find fire, and once that gate is open...

Carey Price was predictably great in Game 1 saving 35 shots, and looking much the man he was last year in the bubble playoffs or in the borderline unwatchable 2017 series against the New York Rangers.

This cannot continue.

Carey Price stole a game, could he do more?

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (31) makes a save against the Toronto Maple Leafs during third period NHL Stanley Cup playoff action in Toronto on Thursday, May 20, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

The series against the Philadelphia Flyers last season showed an interesting fact about hockey: if you don't score goals, you likely won't win.

More forwards need to shoot more, and Youppi! help all bleu-blanc-rouge fans if Shea Weber remains the shots leader on the team.

It's just math. Get more numbers in one column than the other team.

...speaking of scoring.

SUOMI-STEVENS POINT SPARKS

With all due respect to the wise and stable veterans that did the job in Game 1, it might be smart/fun/advisable/the thing of dreams if coach Dominque Ducharme sends out the 20-year-olds!

With Jake Evans out, Finn Jesperi Kotkaniemi got the call to lace up Saturday.

If he can show more of his bubble form and less of his regular season form, he could be a key spark to spray some rubber at Leafs netminder Jack Campbell.

It might also be time to throw the keys to Stevens Point, Wisconsin product Cole Caufield and tell him to floor it.

There is literally no one in the "maybe next year might be his time" camp with when it comes to the 5'7" sparkplug who was born the day Destiny's Child's "Independent Women Part 1" was number one on the charts and Ilya Kovalchuk, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Komisarek were about to be drafted.

Both Caufield and Kotkaniemi cause problems with their speed and energy and could improve the brutal power play.

The less said about that power play the better.

Again, games are won when a hockey team scores at least one more goal than the other team. 

Game on.