Allow me to pull back the curtain on the glamorous world of hockey blogging. It’s not a lot of fun writing pregames or post games. That being said, when we’ve been waiting to watch hockey since the middle of March and get some closure on the season, today it’s feeling pretty darn good.

While the Leafs season was riddled with injuries, controversy, and Cody Ceci, the reboot has the potential to at least give us a fresh start on two out of three of those things. The Leafs are healthy, to the point where Mikheyev was dominant in training camp, and Johnsson is close to returning. The Leafs have had a chance to get in a training camp under Sheldon Keefe now, allowing him to adjust the Leafs further away from the Babcock philosophy that has plagued the team in the past couple of years. And as for Cody Ceci, heck, if there is a time of year that we learn to appreciate defensive defensemen, it’s the post season, so we might even warm up to him a little too.

Tonight is an exhibition game, but a game against the Canadiens is never just a game. In a situation where there is only one shake down game before going directly into elimination hockey, there’s a case to be made that this game is probably more important than the games the Leafs were playing in February and March anyway.

Going up against players like Gallagher, Weber, and facing a goaltender like Price will be good for the Leafs as well. A win will matter because the Leafs need to do more than just loosen up, they need to demonstrate that they are clicking as a team, so don’t expect a light affair tonight.