Leafs send message to Habs with lineup change on Saturday.

It would appear as though there is a little gamesmanship afoot ahead of tonight's clash between longtime rivals the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens on Hockey Night in Canada Saturday night.

The Maple Leafs, and more specifically head coach Craig Berube, have sent a clear message to the Canadiens ahead of tonight's game by making a significant lineup change that has some rather obvious implications. Coming into the lineup tonight will be Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves, with the Maple Leafs clearly looking to play a little more physical against one of their most bitter rivals.

The aforementioned Berube even acknowledged that this was his intention when asked about the change to his lineup, even going so far as to suggest that Reaves' addition was a response to some of the players in the Canadiens lineup.

"It's a big game," admitted Berube. "Montreal. It's a big rivalry, obviously. They got some physical players over there, so we've got to be physical tonight.... We got to play a heavy game."

Here's a look at the full lineup with Reaves being added to the fourth line:

Knies-Matthews-Marner
McMann-Domi-Nylander
Pacioretty-Holmberg-Robertson
Lorentz-Kampf-Reaves

Rielly-Myers
McCabe-Tanev
OEL-Timmins

Woll
Hildeby

Berube clearly makes mention of the fact that there are some players on the Canadiens roster that he would like to have Reaves around to deal with, and it seems likely that Habs enforcer Arber Xhekaj is the man front and center in his mind when he makes those comments. Reaves and Xhekaj have tangled before but there has been a great deal of anticipation about a potential rematch between these two heavyweights.

Will tonight be the night that the rematch between Reaves and Xhekaj finally materializes? I know a good number of hockey fans are going to be glued to their screens in anticipation of that possibility.