Leafs @ Habs: The Toronto Maple Leafs meet the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre tonight as both teams open a new NHL campaign with … high hopes? unrealistic expectations? The Canadiens skidded through the worst season in their long history last season, while the Leafs … well, as Pat Hickey noted in today’s Gazette, oddsmakers are touting them “as one of the favourites to win the Stanley Cup even though they haven’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2004.” Here, from the autumn of 1946, a John Collins cartoon for the Gazette ahead of an early-season encounter between the old rivals. For the record: the two teams ended up in the Stanley Cup finals that season, with the Leafs taking the championship in six games. (Image: © McCord Museum)