Bruins Battle Montreal For First

Two points on the line for two teams that as of now are tied for first place in the Northeast division. Tonight the Boston Bruins will take on their best friends the Montreal Canadiens for possibly one of the most important games of the season. This is the third of four meetings between the teams with each having a win against thus far. The big picture of tonight is that at the end of the game one team will be the leader of the Northeast division and with the season halfway over, that’s an important place to be.

Milan Lucic scored his first goal in 16 games on Monday night! (Credit: Slidingsideways/Flickr)

Bruins back on track:
After a pretty brutal road trip, the Bruins managed to come from behind and get a win on Monday via shootout against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now the game wasn’t pretty but two points is two points and that is what has them in this tie with the Canadiens. The B’sn are on a crazy schedule right now that doesn’t allow for many days of rest which is showing in the games played. Yesterday’s practice was cancelled so ideally the boys are well rested for tonight.

Canadiens cool down:
After a five-game winning streak, the Canadiens are 1-2-1. This has been ideal for Boston as they have been able to keep up and now be at a time with Montreal. They are coming off of a 1-0 shutout loss yesterday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It would in Boston’s best interest to take advantage of the last of rest the Canadiens have had.

PK Versus PP:
The Bruins penalty kill is still top in the league at 91.7% while the power play is sitting at 25th place at 15.1%. Oddly enough there are teams that have a worse power play unit. As for Montreal they are 9th in PP (20.9%) and 18th in PK (80.3%).

Tuukka Rask and Carey Price are two of the best goaltenders in the league right now so look for both to get the starts tonight. Price has stopped 40 of the past 43 shots he’s faced (.930 save percentage). He has 16 games allowing two goals or fewer. Rask allowed just two goals on 25 shots during Monday’s game and has a 15-4-3 record heading into tonights game. His 1.90 GAA is second in the league, while his .928 save percentage is third. I don’t expect either goalie to let up any soft goals tonight.

Puck drops at 7:30 and this being a true rivalry night you can check out the game on NBCSN!

Renew The Rivalry: Boston @ Montreal

It’s no big secret that when it comes to a Bruins/Canadiens game that it’s going to be physical. The rivalry between the two Northeast division teams is something that will probably exist forever. Growing up I was told as a Bruins fan, I was not allowed to like the Habs and I’m sure Montreal fans have heard the same about the B’s.

Anyway, tonight kicks off the first of four meetings between the teams with the Bruins making the trip to Montreal. Last season in six meetings the teams were 2-3-1 in the Bruins favor. Needless to say, tonight’s game will be close as both teams will push one another to the limit.

Will Peverley have another game for the B’s? (Credit:flickr/ Steph Vail)

What’s on the line?
Glad you asked that as tonight’s game will put one of these two teams in the lead in the Eastern Conference. Now for the B’s it’s not too shocking. However, Montreal last season finished last in the conference last season and with the shortened season have a chance to make a name for themselves once again.

What’s happening with the Habs?
Over Super Bowl weekend, the Canadiens swept both matinee games. They have scored 3.25 goals per game through eight games and allowed just 2.12 goals per game against. Aka they are becoming quite the offensive weapon. Their schedule thus far has been home-heavy having tonight’s game be 7 out of 9 at home. It’s safe to say they’ve been taking advantage of the home stand.

Bruised but not broken Bruins:
Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille did not make the trip to Montreal and are both recovering from injury. Meanwhile, Brad Marchand is with the team but is questionable for game time. The B’s have since had to rely on Providence call-ups which thus far have worked out well. The Bruins are coming off of a win against Toronto on Saturday and have had a three-day break to prepare for this game.

Northeast’s Best:
Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask has been phenomenal shutting out the Maple Leafs in his last start. Offensively both Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley have points in their last two games. Canadiens goaltender, on the other hand, Carey Price has won six straight starts, only allowing a single goal in each of his last two outings. Montreals center David Desharnais has three goals in his last two games.

Injury Report;
I’ve already mentioned who’s out for the black and gold but the Habs will be without center Petteri Nokelainen.

Puck drops at 7:30 on NBCSN! You don’t want to miss a classic rivalry showdown.

For the Canadiens side of things, check out The Buring Torch!

 

Seguin Secures Shootout Win Over Montreal

Tyler Seguin gets the Shootout Win! (Credit:Slidingsideways/Flickr)

 

Tonight begins a six game road trip for the Boston Bruins and what better way than to kick it off against an Original Six foe Montreal Canadiens. This is the 717th time these two teams have met, what a history! So far this season the Bruins are leading the series with a 3-2-0 upperhand. This will be the last time the teams meet regular season wise. Timmy “the tank” Thomas got the start for the B’s with Carey Price in the opposite net.

The game got off to a fast start on the Bruins side with them getting the first three shots on net. Thomas came out playing strong too. In a past interview, he said that he enjoyed playing back-to-back games and you can tell, he’s way more on point tonight. Anyway, Dennis Seidenberg gave the Habs the first chance on the power play, but I wasn’t too worried because Montreal is 28th in the league power play wise while the B’s have a solid 7th place in penalty kill. Adam McQuaid and Ryan White duke it out soon after and it was just a mix of hair,fists,and jerseys oh my! When it looked like Seidenberg would give Montreal a second power play, Max Pacioretty thought he’d even out the playing field with a goalie interference penalty. So we get a 4 on 4 but a bit just long enough for Captain Planet Andrew Ference to score! 1-0 Boston (thanks to Brad Marchand for the assist). Lars Eller decides he wants to knock some sense into David Krejci and hits him high with the stick to end the first. Enjoy that 4 minute penalty senor. Oh yeah and I didn’t even mention the cheap shot to oh captain my captain Zdeno Chara that caused him to the leave the ice early…

Never fear because he returned for the second period. Mathieu Darche scored with 18:12 to go with a wonderfully annoying shorthanded goal. Which just so happened to be the first for the Bruins this season. I think my least favorite part was that Academy Award nominated P.K Subban got the assist (I never said I would be nice to the Habs in this post). But fear not because just a mere three minutes later former Hab Benoit Pouliot got past two Canadiens for a FILTHY goal. And that was the end of Benny’s 15 pointless games streak. Paille, LeBlanc, and Cole ALL take goaltender inteference penalties for a 4 on 3 in favor of the B’s. Just saying, I think the league really needs to evaluate the stipulations around that penalty because I’ve never seen so many calls on something so little so often. Shanahan I’m talking to you! Bruins take advantage of the power play with a goal from the goal line by St. Patrice Bergeron at 14:33 in the second. Fellow lineman Tyler Seguin picked up the assist for that one. Just when you thought the period was over, Marchand had to go for a clipping penalty giving the Habs the power play for the start of the third. I thought you learned from your suspension Marchy?!

Thankfully that power play was useless, but not so thankfully was the goal by Pacioretty at 16:26 in the third. Try as I may to stay optimistic I just couldn’t help thinking the Bruins would do something to lead to a Montreal goal. Well they did thanks to newly resigned Johnny Boychuk and his interference call. Granted the Habs didn’t score during that opportunity but they gained some momentum including some VERY close shots on goal. Pretty sure at one point, Chara made a save. No sooner was I praising Chara than I was cursing at him for passing the puck off to Erik Cole and subsequently giving Montreal a goal. And then we were tied with 8:46 to go. A late power play chance for the Bruins, though useful in the sense that we got a lot of shots on net, was worthless goal wise. So it was off to overtime

Well overtime was rather uneventful, minus a beautiful, close but no cigar shot from Marchy.
Onto the shootout we go!

Here’s how the shootout went:
Rene Bourque- Stopped
David Krejci- Stopped…seriously this drought needs to end
Max Pacioretty- Stopped
Tyler Seguin- SCORESSS!!!! just saying he’s my vote for beast of the beasts which you can now vote for =)
Lars Eller- Stopped…BRUINS WIN!!!!!

This win was well deserved and the fact that it came against Montreal is even more bittersweet! The Bruins continue their roadie as they take on the Winnipeg Jets Friday night.

Statistics from (@NHLBruins Twitter)