Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs: Josh Anderson, Alexandre Carrier and Jakub Dobes Spoil Toronto's Opening Night

Forty-eight seconds. That is how long it took William Nylander to make Scotiabank Arena believe the summer makeover in Toronto was going to be a breeze. He kept a puck in at the blue line, walked around Montreal captain Nick Suzuki, and wired a wrist shot past Jakub Dobes. New coach, new goalie, new No. 1 pick, instant lead.

Then the Montreal Canadiens spent the next 59 minutes ruining the vibe. Josh Anderson and Alexandre Carrier each had a goal and an assist, Dobes stood tall early, and Montreal beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Tuesday night in the season opener for both teams. Nothing hits quite like winning the first chapter of this soap opera on the other team's couch.

How the Ice Tilted Back

The first several minutes were all Toronto. The Leafs had a 6-1 edge in shots until Juraj Slafkovsky finally registered Montreal's second shot at 9:43, according to NHL.com, and Dobes kept it from getting out of hand. Montreal coach Martin St. Louis saw it the same way. "I would say the first seven or eight minutes, I'd say the ice was tilted a little bit and we tilted it back," he said.

The tilt started with Anderson at 10:53. Carrier fired from the point, Anderson got a piece of it, and when the rebound popped up he batted it out of the air at the top of the crease. Kirby Dach also earned an assist. A minute later Ivan Demidov tripped Auston Matthews, Toronto went to the power play, and Montreal killed it.

The Canadiens grabbed control early in the second, but only after Dobes made the save of the night. At 0:17 of the period, Kirill Marchenko loaded up a one-timer from the left dot and Dobes gloved it. At 4:52, Mike Matheson drove the net, slid the puck into the slot, and Zachary Bolduc beat Sergei Bobrovsky glove side for a 2-1 lead. Anderson picked up the secondary assist.

The middle frame also featured a little extracurricular business when Jake McCabe and Alex Newhook went for matching roughing minors at 12:56, and Cole Caufield took a trip at 17:45. Toronto came up empty on that power play too.

The Turning Point: Carrier Through the Screen

Toronto had its chances in the third. Oliver Ekman-Larsson went off at 7:01 and Alexandre Texier followed at 9:16, giving each side a power play in the span of a few minutes. Neither cashed in. The game felt like it was waiting for somebody to make a mistake, or for a shot to find a lane.

Carrier found the lane at 13:12. The defenseman let one go from the right point, it threaded a maze of bodies, and it beat Bobrovsky high on the glove side for a 3-1 lead. Unassisted, no deflection, just a clean look through traffic. It was his first of the season, and it turned out to be the winner.

It mattered because Toronto answered quickly. At 15:46, Nylander and Easton Cowan played catch around the Montreal net, Cowan sent it back into the low slot, and Nylander finished for his second of the night. John Tavares had the other assist. The Leafs pushed for the equalizer the rest of the way, Tavares took a roughing minor against Dobes at the final horn, and Montreal skated off with two points.

Stars of the Night

Josh Anderson did the dirty work and got paid for it: a goal, an assist, four hits and a plus-2 in 12:53. According to NHL.com, it was his 13th goal against the Maple Leafs since he joined Montreal in 2020-21, trailing only David Pastrnak and Kyle Connor (14 each) over that span. "We want to try to forecheck teams as much as we can and get in front of Bobrovsky," Anderson said.

Alexandre Carrier scored the winner, set up the opening goal and logged 21:54. Mike Matheson logged 25:07 and set up Bolduc's go-ahead goal.

Jakub Dobes made 26 saves on 28 shots. His teammates noticed. "(Dobes) was excellent, made some really big saves for us," St. Louis said. Dobes had his own take on the early pressure. "It's hard. You sit here for 30 minutes, it's their home opener, you expect them to come out strong," he said.

For Toronto, William Nylander scored both goals. Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves in his first game for the Leafs after signing a three-year contract on July 1. Gavin McKenna, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, played 15:19 in his NHL debut with one shot and a minus-2, and he was honest about it. "(My game was) not great. I had a couple turnovers," McKenna said. Marchenko, acquired from Columbus on Monday, picked up his first point as a Leaf with an assist on the opening goal.

Stats That Matter

• 32-21: Montreal's faceoff advantage, a 60.4 percent clip.
• 28-24: Toronto's shot edge, which bought the Leafs exactly nothing.
• 7-2: Takeaways in Montreal's favor, a sign of how much the forecheck bothered Toronto.
• 0-for-5: Combined power-play results (Montreal 0-for-2, Toronto 0-for-3).
• 10: Games in Toronto's home-opener winning streak, which ended Tuesday, per NHL.com.

What It Means

Montreal starts 1-0-0 and has a few days to enjoy it, with the next game Saturday at Pittsburgh. St. Louis plans to use the time for team bonding and some teaching. "Do we have things to address and correct? I'm sure we do and it's nice to be able to do that after a win," he said.

Toronto opens 0-1-0 in the first game under Jim Hiller, who was hired on June 17 to replace Craig Berube. Nine players, McKenna and Marchenko among them, wore a Leafs sweater in a regular-season game for the first time, per the AP, the product of a summer overhaul that followed a playoff miss. Hiller thought his team played well apart from its defensive-zone turnovers. "Most of the chances they got, we gave them," he said. There is no time to sulk: the Leafs host the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

Closing Take

Toronto spent the summer building a new house and Montreal walked in on opening night, rearranged the furniture and left with the good snacks. The Leafs had the early buzz, the No. 1 pick and the two-goal star. The Canadiens had the forecheck, the goalie and the late shot through traffic. As Anderson put it, Bobrovsky is "a world-class goalie, so just shoot as many pucks as we can and screen him." Simple plan. Worked fine.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and team notes as reported by NHL.com.