The Bruins Are Off to Their Worst Start Since 2005-06, So There Is That

Another game and another humbling defeat by the Bruins. All we can hope is that this isn't an omen for how things are going to go for the bulk of the 2015-16 season. Montreal (2-0) came to TD Garden on Saturday night and topped the B's (0-2) 4-2 in a contest that truthfully wasn't that close since Boston scored with 31 seconds left to make the final score appear a little less grotesque. Boston has started 0-2 just 13 times in their 91 years of existence, most recently in 2005-06. 0-3 is certainly a distinct possibility since the defending Eastern Conference champs-the Lightning (2-0)-pay them a visit on Monday afternoon (1, NESN).

First things first, the best rivalry in hockey has become very one-sided over the last few years. Montreal has won seven games in a row in Boston (dating back to Jan. 12, 2012) and six overall in the series that has seen the most meetings (730) of any NHL matchup. Tonight was more of the same as the Canadiens used their spectacular team speed and skill to draw six power-plays. They only cashed in on one of them (the first) but for whatever reason, the B's under head coach Claude Julien never seem to have an answer for this style for the most part. Boston's plodding and lack of creativity never looks as bad as it does when they face the Habs, every time it sticks out like a sore thumb.

It didn't take long for Montreal to jump ahead as they drew a bogus illegal check to the head penalty on Matt Beleskey at 1:14 then 11 seconds later, David Desharnais had an easy tap-in from Andrei Markov and Alex Galchenyuk. Boston should have had at least a goal or two later in the first as Torey Krug hit the post, Carey Price (20 saves) robbed David Pastrnak not once but twice on the doorstep and Brad Marchand hit the crossbar.

Lars Eller scored a pair of goals early in the second period, sandwiched around what should have been a goal by Joe Morrow that cut it to 2-1. Instead, the Canadiens basically clinched it by going up 3-0. With Boston's lack of goal-scoring against Price-the Vezina Trophy winner-that is an insurmountable lead in most instances. Morrow's goal was off a rebound but it was ruled no goal since Patrice Bergeron slightly bumped Price (because he was pushed by a Canadien). Julien used the new coach's challenge but still lost (thereby forgoing the timeout) even though it appeared to be an easy correction.

A bounce finally went the Bruins' way as Matt Beleskey's centering pass went off a Montreal skate past Price at 14:26 of the second to make it 3-1. The first goal of his Boston career was assisted by David Krejci and Pastrnak. Mild-mannered Ryan Spooner received a boarding and game misconduct penalty for a hit from behind at 3:30 of the third. Boston was able to kill a two-man advantage for Montreal that lasted 1:05. Dale Weiss hit the post but more importantly to Boston's season, Marchand jumped into his elbow (this is how it happened) and ended up very woozy (he went right to the dressing room and never returned). Tomas Plekanec scored an empty-net goal for his 500th career NHL point and Bergeron scored a power play goal in garbage time after Torrey Mitchell got a match penalty.

Julien made two lineup changes coming into this contest with Max Talbot and Colin Miller (playing in his first NHL game) taking the place of Joonas Kemppainen and Zach Trotman. Talbot's only stat was one hit in 12:18 of ice time so it's hard to quantify any contributions he might have made. Miller had a shot on goal and blocked a shot in 16:13. Claude was happy with his performance so I see no reason why he would be switched out on Monday, why not take Matt Irwin (-2) out and replace him with Trotman? I know that messes up the whole left shot/right shot thing but at this point, do the B's really have to worry about secondary stuff like that? How about the best players play while the scrubs take a seat or better yet, go to Providence or get waived.

Call me crazy but at some point, things will click for the Bruins this season and they will look like the playoff contender that most thought they could be, right? We knew it would be bumpy with Zdeno Chara (still no need to rush him back) and Dennis Seidenberg but these first two games have been downright ugly. Julien is probably coaching for his job and you'd like to see him get a fair shake with a legitimate defensive corps, not this slop. Nobody looks good when your team has this many holes already, Tuukka Rask (34 saves) says hello. One of their major downfalls last season, Boston lacked a real identity and they sure don't have a positive one so far this young season.

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No Other Way To Say It: The Canadiens Currently Own the Bruins & Rask

This is really far away but at this rate, the Bruins have to hope that they don't see the Canadiens again in the playoffs this spring because I think we all now how that will turn out, again. Montreal (16-5-1) is currently the best team in the Eastern Conference and they also have the most points in the NHL so you could make a logical argument that they are the top team period. The Canadiens improved to 3-0 vs. the Bruins this season with a nip and tuck 2-0 shutout by Carey Price (33 saves) tonight at TD Garden that clinched the season series. Their only other meeting is February 8 back in Boston.

Montreal snapped a six-game home win streak for Boston and they've outscored the Bruins by an aggregate score of 13-5 this season. This was one of those wins that felt way more dominant than the final score and shots on goal total (33-23 in favor of the B's) would indicate. The Bruins could have played for 180 minutes against Price without scoring a single goal, it was that pathetic. Of course, David Krejci, Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara being out doesn't help but injuries happen so there is no point dwelling on them for too long.

The scary thing is that Tuukka Rask (21 saves) played about as well as he ever does against Montreal but he still fell short. In his career, he fell to 3-12-3 vs. the Canadiens which is baffling. This loss clearly wasn't his fault since the Bruins should be able to muster a couple goals at home, even in a back-to-back.

Montreal came in with the No. 27 power play in the league which is shocking, especially after Andrei Markov's seeing-eye shot from the point went through countless bodies in front and by Rask at 11:37 of the first period. It was the seventh time in the last nine games that Boston had allowed the first goal, not a trend that you want to see continue. Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec had the assists on Markov's second goal of the season.

The Canadiens doubled their lead midway through the second period at 8:59 when Plekanec was on the doorstep to sweep in a rebound. Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk had the assists. Boston tried to get some energy by fighting (Gregory Campbell vs. Dale Weise in the first period and Torey Krug vs. Galchenyuk in the third), something that even they rarely do anymore but that did nothing to noticeably spark them.

Chris Kelly was a late scratch for the B's as well with an injury picked up last night in Columbus which meant that Matthew Lindblad was forced to make his NHL debut. Boston wants to get all these young guys experience in the NHL but not at the same time while they're trying to stay afloat.

The Bruins have one final game before their Thanksgiving break: they host Pittsburgh (13-4-2) on Monday (7, NESN). The Penguins are off to their usual superb start but unlike the Habs, Boston typically has their number. We'll see if that holds true this time with so many important players out for Boston. That will be the first time that they meet this season.

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Bruins Want No Piece of the Weasel Canadiens in the Playoffs

Whenever the Bruins play the Canadiens, it might as well be held under a big top because it is always guaranteed to be a circus. The games are certainly entertaining but damn, Montreal is the only team in the Eastern Conference that is not intimidated by Boston at all. Tonight, the Habs (40-26-7) outlasted the B's (49-17-6) 2-1 in a shootout at TD Garden. With the win, Montreal closed the season series with its biggest rival 3-1. Interesting note: the losing team scored one goal in each matchup.

No matter how many times it happens or what they say, somehow the Canadiens always manage to piss off the Bruins with their usual crap led by that rat P.K. Subban. Boston hoped to put some of this stuff to bed after they rolled 4-1 on March 12 in Montreal but as this game showed, the B's have to hope they avoid the Habs in the postseason. I feel like it's almost a foregone conclusion that they'll meet at some point this spring, if so ugh. You know it'll go six or seven super frustrating games.

Alexei Emelin's power play goal at 6:39 of the first period stood up for almost the entire game. Tuukka Rask (21 saves) had no chance on it since the puck deflected off good old Chris Kelly in front. Montreal's backup goaltender Peter Budaj (28 saves) was having the game of his life when Boston finally cashed in on their sixth power play of the evening. That's one of the most annoying parts of Bruins-Canadiens, it's usually decided by special teams since Montreal flops more than NBA players.

The weird part is that Montreal was still getting those Bell Centre calls at the Garden (six power plays). The only purely enjoyable part of these intense contests is watching a Bruin, in this case Kevan Miller, beat the snot out of a hapless Canadien that didn't really want to fight-Travis Moen who left with a concussion.

The Bruins got on the board at 14:34 of the third period as Patrice Bergeron tipped Dougie Hamilton's shot from the point. Loui Eriksson had the second assist on Bergeron's 23rd goal of the season. It went to overtime but predictably neither team scored. Thank God the stupid shootouts are thrown out in a few weeks for the playoffs. Nothing kills the momentum of a great hockey game more than that cheesy format better suited for little kids.

Boston gets a couple days to stew over this loss which oh by the way snapped their fantasic 12-game winning streak. Thankfully they have three more big games this week and it's not like they go back to playing some shitbags like the Panthers or Sabres. The Blackhawks (41-16-15) come to the Garden on Thursday (7, NESN) then Boston goes to Washington on Saturday and Philadelphia on Sunday. Giddyup, only 10 games left in the regular season.

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Whelp, There Goes That Northeast Division Banner In 2013

As much as it makes me want to light my hair on fire and stab my eye balls with a butter knife, I can admit that so far this season the Montreal Canadiens have been better than my Boston Bruins. What other rational conclusion can you reach after the Habs beat the B's 2-1 tonight at the Bell Centre to wrap up a 3-1 season series?

The win put Montreal (25-8-5) three points up on Boston (24-9-4) in the Northeast Division, the Bruins only hope is that they still have a game in hand over the Canadiens but then again they don't play head-to-head again in the regular season so they'll be swimming upstream for sure.

Goal-scoring has been a major issue for the Bruins the last three weeks (5-5-1): other than the 6-5 shootout loss to Montreal on March 27 which was an outlier, the B's have scored three goals or less in 10 of their last 11 games. That breaks down to five games of one goal, four games of two goals & one game of three goals. This makes the margin for error when it comes to their goaltenders and defense extremely thin.

That previous paragraph is why it was so inexplicable that B's head coach Claude Julien decided to put Jaromir Jagr on the third line tonight with Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille. I'm not kidding, this really happened.

Carey Price (26 saves; 19-7-4) and Tuukka Rask (27 saves; 16-6-4) basically played to a stalemate, the difference being that Montreal had more puck luck. How else do you explain Alex Galchenyuk's goal at 6:49 of the first period? Yes, Bruins rookie defenseman Matt Bartkowski coughed up a bad turnover in his own end but Galchenyuk's attempted pass ended up going off Bartkowski's skate and in. Brandon Prust and P.K. Subban were credited with the assists when that honor should have gone solely to Bartkowski.

God damn Michael Ryder continued to torment his former employers, this time he scored a power-play goal at 57 seconds of the second period. He tipped in Subban's shot from the point for his 16th goal of the season (he would be Boston's leading scorer by two goals). Tomas Plekanec had the second assist.

The only puck that would find its way past Price was a tip by Daniel Paille at 7:10 of the second period. His seventh of the season was courtesy of Johnny Boychuk's shot following a faceoff win. For those keeping track, he has two more goals than Milan Lucic. Haha maybe Paille should be skating on that killer first line.

Nothing better symbolized Boston's inept power-play and goal-scoring touch in general than the miserable final 56 seconds of the game. The Bruins had drawn their first power play of the game and pulled Rask to have a 6-on-4. They kept the puck in Montreal's end but like the drive to nowhere from the Patriots a few years back in their playoff loss to the Jets, this was the power play to nowhere. The B's didn't even get off a shot before time expired, it's like they forgot the situation entirely.

The only solace for Boston is that they return home to face free-falling Carolina (16-19-2, 3rd in Southeast Division) on Monday (7 p.m., NESN) at TD Garden. The Bruins have 11 games left in the regular season which lasts less than three more weeks. It's time to get their game in gear before the postseason begins.

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