The (relative) silence was deafening

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

There was a huge difference in the Toronto crowd compared to Montreal. I say this as a hockey fan born and raised in Toronto - there was no comparison in the atmosphere. Montreal was much more raucous. It was not even close in Toronto.

The players noticed it, too. Everybody noticed it.

I was surprised the difference was so great. Now, there is no question that fans at the Air Canada Centre love their Maple Leafs, but Toronto has not been home to much international hockey in the past, so maybe they just had trouble cheering for the red Maple Leaf instead of the blue one. It's really unfortunate, because Canada will play the balance of its schedule in Toronto, and they seem to get a better reception in Montreal.

- taken from www.tsn.ca/world_cup_hockey/news_story.asp?ID=97634&hubName=world_cup_hockey

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Canada has also never lost when playing Russia or the Soviet Union in Toronto.

This win pushed their record to 7-0-1 in games in the World Cup, Canada Cup or Canada-Soviet series.

Though you can't really credit the surprisingly quiet sellout crowd of 19,226 for its help in this victory.

They were quite subdued, particularly when compared to the raucous reception the Canadians received in their first two games at Montreal.

- taken from this Toronto Starticle

[CentreHice]

Montreal fans had lots of "hometown/home province" boys to cheer for: Lemieux, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Brodeur, Luongo, Theodore, and Gagne. That seems to be more than enough to ignite the passion.

There is no Toronto-born, Ontario-born culture/passion in Leaf-land. They are so myopic, they were still grumpy about the fact the Belfour was out of commission and McCabe was bypassed three times.
Apparently, Quinn being the coach isn't enough.

They probably would've been more excited if Canada had been playing Sweden to watch Sundin in action.

[Bobs_HABit]

French or English, it didn't matter.

I was at both games in Montreal with 3 fellow Ontarians plus at least another couple of thousand from Southern Ontario as one could tell between the downtown hotels (sold out, many people with jerseys) and the crowds at the after parties. It was like a mass exidus driving back home along the 401 on Thursday.

As we sat in our seats, even the Leaf fans around us all admitted that the games at the ACC would be NOTHING like the games at the Bell Center.

Tuesday's game was an atmosphere like I've never seen.

It's no surprise that Canada failed to dominate last night's 1st period as opposed to the other 2 games.