Sheldon Keefe only really noticed the fact his team was playing in front of no fans during Tuesday's national anthem.
Other than that, the Toronto Maple Leafs head coach felt like it was a pretty normal game - in an extremely abnormal time.
Toronto, meanwhile, wore its road whites and used the visitors bench for the first time in the building's 21-year history. Ilya Mikheyev had the other goal for the Leafs, who got 28 saves from Frederik Andersen. Tomas Tatar and Paul Byron replied for the Canadiens. Carey Price stopped 19 shots for Montreal.
Tatar got one back for Montreal with 3:04 left in the second on a power play, but Kerfoot tipped Rielly's shot late in the period to make it 3-1. Leafs rookie Nick Robertson, who was making his NHL debut after a 55-goal season in the Ontario Hockey League, picked up the other assist. While television viewers were treated to artificial crowd noise, media seated in the upper bowl could hear almost every word uttered on the ice - including a couple of expletives - which is why the NHL has implemented a five-second delay on broadcasts. One particularly loud curse word bellowed in the second period, however, got past censors.
Players from both teams stood side-by-side on the blue line for the national anthem as a show of solidarity with social justice movements which, like the pandemic, have been front of mind since hockey was last played in North America.
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