Montreal Canadiens-Toronto Maple Leafs: The Belorussian Rivalry Continues

The most storied rivalry in hockey gets another page added tonight when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit the Bell Centre to take on the Montreal Canadiens.

Both teams are coming off disappointing losses to the Buffalo Sabres this week and will be eager to boost their confidence with the renewed rivalry.

Under the eyeglass for the Leafs will be starting goaltender Vesa Toskala, who has been called out this week by both coach Ron Wilson and General Manger Brian Burke for his poor performances this season.

"I would have expected Vesa to have much better numbers," Wilson told his team's official Web site. "He has been inconsistent at best. He has played some solid games, some poor. We have tried to find some consistency."

Despite going 2-0-2 in his last four starts, Toskala's 3.34 GAA and .883 SvPct rank second-worst in the league.

Toskala is 5-3-1 with a 3.42 GAA lifetime versus Montreal, but is 1-2-0 against the Canadiens in three starts this year, with a GAA of 6.00. Also, two of these starts were pulled in after two periods.

Montreal has won six of their last eight at home and will look to back up Jaroslav Halak to continue his successful season against the Leafs. Halak is 2-0-0 with a 1.50 GAA against Toronto this season.

Having lost their last five road games, a win tonight at home would be a big morale boost for the Canadiens as they embark on a six-game western road trip after tonight's game, starting in Calgary on Monday.

The game's under-card will feature an apparent rivalry between former teammates Mikhail Grabovski and Sergei Kostitsyn.

The on-ice bitterness between the two Belorussians dates to a 6-3 Leafs win in November—Grabovksi had a two point night, butt-ended goaltender Carey Price in the midsection, and repeatedly taunted his former teammates by pointing up at the scoreboard.

Kostitsyn received a 10-minute misconduct for taking a run at the Leaf in that game.

During their last encounter, a 6-2 Canadiens win in Montreal, the two came to near-blows but were separated by the referees.

Grabovski left the ice giving an "acknowledgement" to the Montreal fans and received a three-game suspension for making contact with a linesman and kicking ice at him while trying to get at Kostitsyn.

While Grabovski and his agent have now gone on record this week and downplayed this rivalry, many previous comments to the media are not convincing.

"I think he is not Belorussian now, he is French, because I never fight with Belorussian guys," Grabovski said of Kostitsyn. "I don't know why he wants to fight with me. If he wants to fight, we'll go in the street and, every minute of every day, I'll wait for him and we'll fight."

After learning that Grabovski was a healthy scratch for the first time this season during the Leafs 5-0 loss to Buffalo on Wednesday, Kostitsyn's response was, "Good."

On the injury front, the Leafs' Thomas Kaberle is out with a broken hand.

The Canadiens' Mathieu Dandenault has recovered from a broken arm and could be a game-time, though unlikely, decision. Guillaume Latendresse, Robert Lang, Alex Tanguay, and Patrice Brisebois are also on the injury list.