bigbigjim

Not a great way to start the year getting egged by the Habs. I got this from Sportsnet:

Habs stun Leafs in Toronto season-opener


Habs netminder Jose Theodore stopped 21 shots as The Montreal Canadiens stunned the Maple Leafs in Toronto during their home-opener.

TORONTO (CP) -- Jose Theodore probably knows there are people out there who believe his Hart Trophy season of two years ago was more fluke than fact, and he's determined to make 2003-04 his return among the league's elite netminders.

An early statement in front of a national audience certainly is a good start.

Theodore stopped 21 shots for his 18th career shutout Saturday night, including a number of key saves when the game was still scoreless, as the Montreal Canadiens blanked the rival Maple Leafs 4-0 in Toronto's season opener.

"I came to camp in great shape," Theodore said. "I do feel more confident and it started in training camp. I didn't feel sharp last year in camp and that carried through into the season."

The Habs have little hope of making the playoffs this season unless Theodore is back to his Vezina Trophy ways. When he's on his game, and young and hard-working Montreal lineup can better executive a defensive system that won't entertain many but may steal some victories.

"Jose was a big key to our success tonight," said Habs head coach Claude Julien. "He made some big saves to keep us in it when it was 0-0. And that's what we're expecting from him this year."

Mike Ribeiro, Richard Zednik and defenceman Sheldon Souray scored second-period goals while rookie Michael Ryder scored his first NHL goal late in the third period for the Canadiens (1-1-0-0), who looked very little like the sorry bunch that got overrun by the Ottawa Senators in their opener Thursday.

"We didn't do anything right two days ago," said Souray, who missed all of last season with a wrist injury. "We don't want to get into bad habits. We needed to correct that right away.

"There's a long way to go but it's definitely something to build on."

Ribeiro looked dangerous on Montreal's top line with Zednik and Marcel Hossa, subbing for injured captain Saku Koivu.

"We played within the system," said Ribeiro. "We didn't try to do anything too fancy. We just tried to slow (the Leafs) down because they have a great offence.

"This game is a real confidence-booster for us."

Then again, the Habs beat a Leafs squad that looked disjointed for large stretches of the game Saturday, a step behind Montreal on loose pucks and hesitant with the puck coming out of their own zone.

"We weren't a good team," said Leafs head coach Pat Quinn, whose post-game news conference was short and sweet.

"I'm not sure energy was a problem. Execution was a problem."

A moment late in the second period summed up Toronto's night, Joe Nieuwendyk -- making his Leaf debut -- colliding with linemate Gary Roberts at the Montreal blue-line with both players getting up rather gingerly after the embarrassing mishap.

"It wasn't the way we wanted to start by any means," said Nieuwendyk. "We have to regroup."

The boo-birds were in full force both at the end of the second period and in the late stages of the game, not the way new GM John Ferguson envisioned starting his tenure.

"Everybody was disgruntled," Nieuwendyk said, not blaming the fans one bit. "It wasn't the kind of effort we wanted. I know it's only the first game but we have to play better than that."

When the Leafs did threaten, Theodore closed the door. His pad save off Nieuwendyk from in-close during a Toronto power-play late in the second period was one of his best.

The Hockey Night In Canada classic wasn't exactly exciting early on. There's a chance Saturday's first period was the dullest 20 minutes of hockey in the 661 regular-season meetings between the two Original Six clubs, the Leafs coming out absolutely flat after a week's rest while the Habs were more than happy to dump the puck in and wait for Toronto to make a mistake.

The game opened up in the second period and it's the Leafs that got the first scoring chance, star winger Alex Mogilny skating in alone on Theodore two minutes into the period but foiled by the netminder's blocker on a wrist shot.

The save seemed to spur on the Habs, who began to pursue the puck more aggressively in the Toronto zone and take control of the play.

Montreal broke through at 6:54, Andrei Markov's point shot going off Ribeiro and under the crossbar behind a screened Ed Belfour, igniting cheers from the hundreds of Montreal fans in the arena.

A holding penalty to Leafs forward Darcy Tucker gave Montreal its fifth power play of the night and Zednik made it count, ripping a slapshot from the top of the circle past Belfour at 12:45 to make it 2-0.

The Leafs got a power play of their own minutes later but got caught flat-footed on a turnover at the Montreal blue-line, and Joe Juneau skated away on a 2-on-1, his perfect saucer pass one-timed by a pinching Souray to give the Habs a stunning 3-0 lead with just over four minutes left in the middle period.<

Ryder, the pride of St. John's, Nfld., banged home a rebound with just over three minutes left in the third period to cap the scoring.

"I didn't know it went in at first because I had my back to the net," said Ryder, who couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "But I was pretty excited when I saw the puck in the net.

"It was pretty special, especially to score on Hockey Night In Canada."

So is it a blip or a sign of things to come?

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