Mum’s the word on playoffs, Canadiens

Players, coach focused on final games despite excitement across city

The Maple Leafs weren’t ready to discuss a Toronto-Montreal playoff series Wednesday.

With the Leafs facing the Senators on Wednesday night and the Jets in their last game of the regular season Friday, forward Mitch Marner and coach Sheldon Keefe were staying in the moment.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a hard-fought (series against the Canadiens),” Marner said, “but we have two games left, and I don’t want to look at it too much. We have to make sure we play these two games hard.”

“I’m just going to focus on the Ottawa Senators here tonight,” Keefe said. “If I answer those questions, what are you gonna ask me for the next eight days or nine days before we start playing?”

The Leafs-Canadiens matchup, the first post-season meeting between the two Original Six teams since 1979, began trending on social media the moment it became official Tuesday night. Edmonton and Winnipeg will meet in the other North Division semifinal.

Marner said he has noticed the excitement in fans, some of whom congratulated him after the Leafs won a division title for the first time in 21 years. But the players are trying to not look past the next two games. They entered Wednesday as long shots for the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the regularseason champions. The needed to win both games this week and have Vegas and Colorado lose their remaining games.

Marner said he is cutting out hockey on TV and social media.

“Social media can be a great thing for some things, but it’s also a very bad thing sometimes, or most times really, so I’m just trying to stay off all that stuff. I think our team’s done a great job of that as well,” Marner said.

“Sure, you can feel the energy in Toronto when you’re walking around or see people. I think everyone is excited for what we’ve done this season but we just gotta make sure we keep going, keep working, and get that ultimate goal (of winning the Stanley Cup).”

Leafs defenceman Travis Dermott at least smiled at the prospect of facing Montreal in the playoffs, and when it was mentioned that he went to a Frenchimmersion school in Newmarket when he was younger.

“I don’t know how interested I was in it first, when all my hockey buddies were taking English classes at an English school,” Dermott said. “But my mom always said, ‘What if you get drafted by Montreal? You want to be able to speak French.’ ”

He was picked by the Leafs instead, a second-round choice in 2015, and will try to help Toronto even the rivalry. Montreal holds an 8-7 edge in 15 playoff meetings, dating to 1917.

“Yeah, it’s Leafs vs. Habs, its everything you want in a playoff series,” Dermott said. “It’s exciting for us, we feel good against them, we played them a fair amount of times (the Leafs were 7-2-1 in the regular season series against the Canadiens), so we have a good feeling there.

“But we want to take these next two games (against Ottawa and Winnipeg) and focus in on what will be important come playoff time.”