Maple Leafs crush Canadiens, debuts for O’Reilly and Acciari

The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 in front of 19, 535 fans at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night in the home team’s debuts for Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari.

LEAFS WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWIN!!@LGCanada | #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/i5b1L7OCLt

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 19, 2023

The two forwards were acquired from the St. Louis Blues in a blockbuster three-team trade late Friday — and were in the action just over 20 hours later.

He was quacktastic eh ⭐️@Molson_Canadian | #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/K6qDbXs6cA

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) February 19, 2023

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Michael Bunting netted twice and Pierre Engvall, William Nylander and David Kampf also scored for the Maple Leafs.

Joseph Woll stopped 29 shots and Auston Matthews and Rasmus Sandin each picked up two assists.

Josh Anderson scored the Canadiens’ only goal 42 seconds into the second period for Montreal and Jake Allen made 37 saves.

O’Reilly, who won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP with St. Louis in 2019, started on a line between John Tavares and Mitchell Marner.

O’Reilly joins defenseman Mark Giordano as a former NHL captain in Toronto’s locker room alongside Tavares.

The Canadiens visit the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday in the third game of a four-game trip. The Maple Leafs are at Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.