Canadiens Embarrass Bruins 5-1 at Gillette Stadium In The 2016 Winter Classic

It is one thing for a much-hyped event not to live up to expectations but it's another for the home team to completely fall on its face in the biggest game of the regular season in front of a worldwide audience on NBC. Today, Gillette Stadium was the setting for one of the lowest moments in recent Bruins (20-13-4) history as they fell 5-1 to the Canadiens in the 2016 Winter Classic. It wasn't even that competitive as Montreal (22-15-3) jumped ahead 1-0 just 1:14 into the game, led 3-0 after two periods and cruised to an easy victory in this bitter rivalry that has had 733 regular season meetings (most in NHL history).

With the two points, the Habs leapfrogged idle Florida back into first-place in the Atlantic Division. It marked the fourth time in the last few weeks that the B's have had a chance to take over the top-spot, only to lose. The easy excuse for the Bruins was that they were missing two of their best players-Brad Marchand (serving the first game of his 3-game suspension) and David Krejci (on IR with upper-body injury). Conversely, Montreal welcomed back Brendan Gallagher who had missed the past 17 games with two broken fingers. He returned with a goal and assist as he provided an immediate spark to what had been a sputtering team without him. Of course, injuries happen to every team and Marchand's reckless play was his own fault so it's hard to feel much sympathy for Boston's current plight.

I doubt anyone on the Canadiens enjoyed this triumph more than Holliston, MA native Mike Condon (27 saves) who had Tom Brady printed on his special mask for the Winter Classic. Even cooler than that, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick (the mask also said "Do Your Job") and Brady both signed it since they were temporary neighbors for Montreal's goaltender this week. Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (25 saves) did not have quite as enjoyable an afternoon since his teammates were lifeless and there was little that he could do by himself to prevent most of the five goals. Late in the game, he took a shot to the throat but valiantly stayed in.

David Desharnais was scoreless in his past seven contests so naturally he opened the scoring when he batted the puck out of mid-air. It was his eighth goal of the season, assisted by Dale Weise and Alexei Emelin. Considering that Boston was outshot 14-3 in the first period, they were lucky to only be down 1-0 after 20 minutes. Another nobody tallied a goal for Montreal as Paul Byron dove to put in a rebound at 2:00 of the second. Lynnfield MA native Brian Flynn and Mark Barberio assisted on Byron's sixth goal of the season. A cross-checking penalty on Kevan Miller knocked Dale Weise (upper-body injury) out of the game but the Canadiens power play couldn't capitalize. Boston appeared to cut it to 2-1 at 8:20 when Jimmy Hayes put in what would have been a power play goal following Zdeno Chara's initial shot. The referees blew the whistle when they thought that Condon had the puck covered (he didn't) so Bruins head coach Claude Julien (rocking a Belichick style Bruins hoodie) couldn't challenge it.

Rask made a nice stop on Gallagher but minutes later, Montreal's pesky right wing knocked in Max Pacioretty's aerial pass at 17:20 for a commanding 3-0 lead. It was a sublime piece of skill that basically put away the game for the Canadiens with more than an entire period left. Tomas Plekanec had the second assist on Gallagher's 10th goal of the season. With Boston's shorthanded attack, there was no way that they were scoring three or more goals following that. Since he was the only Bruin with a positive +/- today, it was fitting that Matt Beleskey bagged their only goal. He tipped in Adam McQuaid's shot from the point at 3:56 of the third period. Ryan Spooner had the second assist on Beleskey's eighth goal of the season which gave Boston (and the crowd) some brief life for almost five whole minutes of game action.

Pacioretty shut down the B's with a beautiful one-timer off a saucer pass from Gallagher at 8:49 of the third. Plekanec picked up his second assist on Pacioretty's team-leading 16th goal of the season. Hayes and Lars Eller tried to brawl in garbage time but it wasn't really a fight so they were just called for roughing. 10 seconds later, Byron knocked in another rebound from P.K. Subban and Nathan Beaulieu. Truth be told, Montreal deserved to win by (at least) four goals while Boston should have lost by about 10 goals for the pitiful effort they put up in front of a sell-out crowd (67,246).

Boston's next game isn't until Tuesday (7, NESN) when they host Washington (28-7-2)-the top team in the Eastern Conference. Needless to say, that's a huge tilt especially because the Bruins head out on a five-game road trip (Devils, Senators, Rangers, Flyers and Sabres). Then again, this is the same team that remains under .500 at home (9-10-2) while they are 11-3-2 on the road. It is going to be a rough few days trying to digest this bitter loss, mostly because they figure to hear about it non-stop until Tuesday. Keep in mind though, that they are still only three points behind Montreal with three games in hand and two points behind Florida (21-12-4).

Tweet

The Bruins Better Hope That They Don't See the Canadiens In the Playoffs This Season

There will always be teams and players that you struggle against consistently but the way that the Canadiens have owned the Bruins this season is some next level stuff. Montreal (34-14-3) swept Boston (28-18-7) in the four-game season series capped off by an easy 3-1 win tonight at TD Garden vs. the Bruins. It seems like no matter what the B's throw at the Canadiens, they always have the answer. Conversely, no team shatters Boston's confidence faster than Montreal, it's like clockwork every time that they play.

It has gotten so one-sided that some Bruins fans actually wanted them to start rookie goaltender Malcolm Subban (in his NHL debut) vs. his brother P.K. Yeah, because that makes sense. As usual vs. Montreal, Tuukka Rask (31 saves) wasn't the main issue. Still, there is no hiding from the depressing reality that he fell to 3-13-3 against them all-time.

After a scoreless first period, where Boston killed two penalties, the Canadiens struck first 38 seconds into the second. Dale Weise was stationed on the right post for a laser pass by Max Pacioretty. All Milan Lucic's buddy had to do was stuff it in for his ninth goal of the season, David Desharnais had the second assist.

Carey Price (34 saves) is having a spectacular year, he has to be the front-runner for the Vezina trophy since Pekka Rinne has missed so much time. You can't say the Bruins really challenged him though despite the gaudy save total. Similar to their first goal, Montreal once again found Boston to be flat-footed to open a period and like only they can, made them pay for it immediately. Two Boston defensemen collided in the offensive zone leaving Pacioretty to leak out for a breakaway. He shot the puck by Rask 56 seconds in for his team-leading 24th goal of the season and wouldn't you know that Weise had the lone assist.

The only instance of the Bruins showing any pride at all is when rookie David Pastrnak got just enough of the puck for it to go in at 15:29 of the third. The mad scramble in front of Price was reviewed and correctly called Pastrnak's fifth goal of the season. Lucic and Dougie Hamilton had the assists on the rookie's first tally since January 13.

That brief excitement finally generated for the B's lasted exactly four minutes as that's how long it took Montreal to clinch the two points with an empty-netter by Andrei Markov. His seventh goal of the season was unassisted. It's bad enough that Boston has drawn the fewest penalties in the NHL (122) but the next closest team isn't in the same area code (New Jersey, 147). That inability to get the man advantage always hurts the most when they play the Canadiens who want nothing more than to make it a special teams game (where they excel vs. big, dumb, slow Boston).

Boston hosts Dallas on Tuesday (7, NESN), their final home game before a five-game road trip to the West Coast/Canada. The Stars are not particularly good and the Bruins already beat them in Dallas (24-21-8) so might as well do it again.

Tweet

Bruins Completely Flop In Their 1st Game Vs. Canadiens Since Last Postseason

For the first chapter of Bruins-Canadiens in the 2014-15 regular season, it was more of the same carried over from last spring. Boston (ahem Milan Lucic) mentally got out of their game, their defense was a mess and the biggest issue of all continues to be Tuukka Rask's inability to beat Montreal.

The Canadiens (4-1-0) outlasted the Bruins (2-4-0) 6-4 tonight at the Bell Centre. Rask gave up five goals before he was mercifully pulled in the third period, in 18 career regular season starts vs. Montreal, he is 3-11-3 with .902 save percentage. Lucic further disgraced himself (and likely cost himself some money) by making a lewd gesture to the crowd after a boarding call with 1:20 left in regulation. This wasn't cool or funny, the B's were only down 5-4 at the time but that effectively ended it. He got a 10-minute misconduct and P.A. Parenteau scored an empty-netter to clinch it.

If you want to take a positive from this, Boston's offense finally woke up with a season-high four goals. They also blew two separate leads but that's another story. Zdeno Chara's power play goal, a tip in, was answered by Max Pacioretty's power play goal 2:30 after that in the first period. In the second, Boston's defense started to spring a leak or 10 as Brendan Gallagher made it 2-1 before Carl Soderberg tied it. Loui Eriksson gave the B's a short-lived 3-2 lead before they fell apart at the end of the frame. Jiri Sekac scored his first NHL goal and Parenteau slammed home a one-timer with 24 seconds left.

Gallagher's second goal (a slow motion redirect from a mile away) was incredibly soft and signaled the end of the night for Rask. Niklas Svedberg came in and credit Boston for showing some life as Simon Gagne potted his first tally as a Bruin. That was as close as they would get though as Lucic's selfish idiocy (granted the boarding call was probably based on his less than great reputation) sealed their fate.

Gallagher had a career-high two goals and an assist, Pacioretty put together a three-point night as well (1 goal, 2 assists) while David Desharnais, Alexei Emelin and Tomas Plekanec each notched a pair of assists. David Krejci, Chris Kelly and Lucic all had two assists for Boston in the loss.

After a back-to-back on the road against Atlantic Division rivals, Boston gets a day to regroup before closing out this trip in Buffalo on Saturday (7, NESN) at the First Niagara Center. The Sabres (1-3-0) are still one of the NHL's worst teams so the B's have to take advantage of that and come home with two more points. I expect Svedberg to get the start then, I never thought he'd get the call tonight since head coach Claude Julien wouldn't put him in that spot.

UPDATE 10/17: Lucic was fined $5000 by the NHL for his tomfoolery, the highest amount allowed without having a hearing.

Tweet

Well It Doesn't Get Much More Bitter Than That: Losing Game 7 at the Garden to the Canadiens

Ugh, that's about all I can say. The Bruins were on the short list of true Cup contenders in the NHL this season but that matters little now since they were unceremoniously bounced 3-1 by the Canadiens in Game 7 at TD Garden this evening. Montreal advances to the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Rangers while Boston is left to wonder what happened after they blew a 3-2 series lead. It's going to be a long summer in the Hub for a team that rightfully had very high expectations for itself and not getting out of the second round hardly cuts it.

As they have all series long, Boston was forced to chase Montreal as they fell behind by two goals for the fifth time (not a winning strategy by any means). Dale Weise scored at 2:18 on an easy tap-in from Daniel Briere and the game might as well have been stopped there since the team that scored first had won every game. Boston couldn't really get out of their own way in the first as even captain Zdeno Chara wasn't himself getting called not once but twice for holding.

The Canadiens proved to be the far more dangerous and deeper team as the series progressed. Max Pacioretty who got untracked with his breakaway goal in Game 6, scored a similarly huge goal in the second period at 10:22-a one-timer from David Desharnais after multiple Bruins including Mr. Selke Patrice Bergeron failed to clear the puck.

Boston finally got on the board at 17:59 as Jarome Iginla tipped in Torey Krug's shot from the point, a power play goal and his fifth overall in the postseason. That's all that Carey Price (29 saves) would allow though and once more, he was better than Tuukka Rask (15 saves). Of course, Rask and the B's also had what the British call "Buzzard's luck" as illustrated by the final Montreal goal-Briere's harmless pass deflected off Chara's skate into the net. It was a fitting end for a team that scored one goal in its final two games and basically forgot how to score. Iginla hit the post with a backhander earlier in the third.

This truly sucks, hockey season is abruptly over and now all we have for months upon months is tedious regular season baseball. Sorry Revs and Cannons, I kind of pay attention to you but nobody else does. The part that really hurts is having to admit that grimy Montreal actually deserved this since they carried play for most of the series. Our worst fears came to life as Boston consistently loses their focus against cheap but effective Montreal. It also helps that the Canadiens have a bevy of guys that can shoot the puck in the ocean which the Bruins sadly do not.

In closing, go Rangers/Blackhawks and Ducks/Kings. I don't think that we can stand much more success for joke city Montreal.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Why Did the Bruins Even Bother Showing Up for Game 6 in Montreal?

What's that, you thought that the Bruins would make life easier for themselves and eliminate the Canadiens in six games? Oh, well you must be new around here. One of the things you can count on in the last decade is for Boston-Montreal series to go the distance no matter what. After the Canadiens rolled 4-0 over the Bruins tonight in a Game 6 win at Bell Centre that felt more like 10-0, the teams will play a deciding Game 7 on Wednesday (7, NBCSN) at TD Garden. It's the fourth time since 2004 that they've gone seven games against each other.

This never seemed in doubt either as Montreal scored 2:11 into regulation (Lars Eller after a brutal turnover by Kevan Miller in his own end) then added a Max Pacioretty breakaway goal in the second period at 15:24 followed shortly after by Thomas Vanek's power play goal at 17:39. Boston was back to its pop gun ways: Loui Eriksson hit another crossbar, Milan Lucic missed a stunningly easy shot with Carey Price (26 saves; 4th career postseason shutout) out of position and there was even a shot that bounced off Carey and behind him but spun back away from the goal line so it wasn't a goal. I've never seen something like that happen before in my life.

As always with losses by Boston teams, fans were quick to blame someone rather than crediting an opposing team that simply kicked their ass all night. Tuukka Rask (24 saves) actually kept the B's in it for a while including an incredible save with his stick laid on the ice. It's tough to bash him for Eller's goal since it happened in a split second right in front of him. For Pacioretty's, Rask seemed to get caught trying to decide between coming out more to poke it or not with Zdeno Chara skating with Pacioretty. Unfortunately, the B's captain lost the race which was a fitting metaphor for their poopy Game 6 performance.

Vanek's second goal was a de facto empty netter since Rask was still coming off for an extra attacker when the puck went in. After putting together their best win of the series and maybe postseasonin Game 5, it was surprising that the B's laid suck a huge egg in their worst game of the postseason. With any luck, they've already forgotten about this debacle as they try to focus on Game 7. The Bruins earned the President's Trophy which means that the most important game of their season comes on their home ice. Boston has to be happy just to be out of Montreal where they went 1-2 and were outscored 8-3 in this series.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Bruins Drop Their 1st Stinkbomb of the Season at TD Garden

I honestly feel bad for the people that paid good money to see the Bruins face the Canadiens tonight at TD Garden. For their time, energy and dough, they witnessed a 4-1 win for Montreal (29-20-5) that wasn't nearly that close. It was the first time this season that Boston (34-16-3) had lost by three goals at home. The strange part was that they were completely lifeless for about 58 of the 60 minutes combined.

Tuukka Rask faced Peter Budaj (34 saves)-Montreal's backup goaltender-which on paper looked like a great matchup for the B's. However, Rask proceeded to give up three goals in a period and a half. Claude Julien had seen enough since two of them were particularly weak.

You know something was up when a bum like Alexei Emelin scored the first goal, ironically his first of the season, with a shot from the point that Rask couldn't see through traffic at 2:16. New Canaan CT native (and Team USA forward) Max Pacioretty made it 2-0 at 14:32. It came on a breakaway so you can't fault Rask for that but Pacioretty's clumsy move and backhander wasn't exactly Crosby-esque.

Boston's only highlight was a goal originally credited to David Krejci but then changed to Dougie Hamilton who shot it from the point. His fifth goal of the season, assisted by the Swedes-Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson-came at 15:38.

Former BC star Brian Gionta's weak tip on a power play somehow eluded Rask at 11:54 of the second period for a 3-1 Canadiens lead. Rask's night was over as he stormed back to Boston's dressing room (look out milk crates!). Chad Johnson was summoned and rudely greeted by a breakaway and goal by washed up Daniel Briere at 13:46.

The third period was ultra rare garbage time at the Garden with the Black and Gold going through the motions and not doing anything positive of note. The good news for Boston is that they are back at the Garden on Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) to face the wretched Oilers (18-32-6, 7th in Pacific Division)-the worst team in the Western Conference who lost 4-2 to the Bruins on December 12 in Edmonton.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Bruins Drop Out of 1st Place in the Atlantic Division, Fall 2-1 at Canadiens

Normally I would rip the Canadiens and their lame fans to shreds but I lack the venom tonight after watching the Bruins lose 2-1 at the Bell Centre and defenseman Johnny Boychuk get wheeled off on a stretcher with some sort of serious injury (back?) early in the first period. The good news about that is he flew back with the team so their doctors can check him out.

Montreal earned the win and they are now in first place in the Atlantic Division. Granted, the Habs have played two more games than the Bruins but only have one additional point to show for it. Oh well, let's not get the facts caught up in a Stanley Cup parade scheduled for Montreal in December. What's that, they play three more times this season?

The weird part is that Boston dominated in the first period (outshooting Montreal 10-3) and the third period (16-6) but only had one goal to show for it. Conversely, the Canadiens basically saved up all their limited energy for the second period (outshooting Boston 18-7) and it paid off. The Canadiens (18-9-3) scored both of their goals in the frame as they won their second game in two nights to improve to 8-0-1 in their last nine games.

The Bruins (18-8-2) hadn't played in a game since Saturday night which is an eternity in the NHL. Gregory Campbell opened the scoring at 17:35 of the first period thanks to a 2-on-1 with Milan Lucic. His second goal of the season was assisted by Lucic and Dennis Seidenberg (specifically his skate which he used to kick the puck to Looch).

Tomas Plekanec beat Tuukka Rask (25 saves) with a sharp angle shot at 9:16 of the second period. You don't see Rask give up many goals like that but credit to Plekanec who picked a corner, top shelf. He gets paid too you know. Josh Gorges and former BC Eagle star Brian Gionta had the assists. Shawn Thornton and former Ranger Brandon Prust dropped the gloves when it was 1-1 but the fight wasn't anything to write home about.

Just like there always seems to be drama when the B's visit Montreal, Max Pacioretty morphs into a Hall of Famer when he plays Boston. This evening that meant scoring the game-winner at 17:42 of the second period on a backhander through traffic. Raphael Diaz and Brendan Gallagher had the assists.

Sadly, we'll probably have to root for Pacioretty on Team USA at the Olympics which is no fun. Conversely, it should be fantastic to hate on Carey Price (32 saves) who is making a push to be Team Canada's starting goaltender.

Boston gets a breather on Friday but things don't get any easier as they host the Eastern Conference's top team-Pittsburgh (20-9-1, 1st in Metropolitan Division)-on Saturday night (7, NESN) then travel North of the border (again) to Toronto (7, NESN) on Sunday night. The B's and Penguins split their first two matchups this season with each winning on home ice, Boston most recently won 4-3 in OT on Nov. 25 when Torey Krug ended it with his first career overtime tally.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Patrice Bergeron Named NHL's Second Star Of The Week

As everybody who reads this blog knows, the Bruins (14-3-2) are off to a great start in this lockout shortened reason. A big reason why has been center Patrice Bergeron (5 goals, 13 assists) who not only leads the team in points but also plus/minus at +15 (also the NHL's highest mark). For his great week, this afternoon he was named the NHL's second star of the week behind Montreal left wing Max Pacioretty and ahead of Minnesota goaltender Niklas Backstrom.

Last week, Bergeron had two goals and four assists as Boston went 3-1-0 and rode a six-game winning streak until losing last night to the Canadiens. He had points in each game including two assists in the Bruins' 4-1 win over the Islanders on Tuesday, the overtime game-winning goal against Ottawa (2-1 Bruins) on Thursday and a goal and two assists in Boston's 4-3 loss to Montreal last night.

This is the same guy that won his first Selke award last season (for the NHL's best defensive player) so as you'd expect, he is still winning a majority of his faceoffs and playing that outstanding two-way game that we've grown to identify and appreciate. He is also centering Boston's best forward line by far: him, Brad Marchand (6 goals, 11 assists) and Tyler Seguin (5 goals, 10 assists) are Boston's top three scorers-David Krejci is tied with Seguin-and they've been consistently excellent in pretty much every game so far this season.

Bergeron and the B's are back in action tomorrow night (7 p.m., NESN) when they visit the Washington Capitals (8-11-1) at the Verizon Center in DC.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Canadiens Rally For A 4-3 Win In Boston

Games like tonight are why hockey fans enjoying fighting in the NHL and don't want to see the most brutal aspect of the sport be taken out. Montreal (14-4-4) scored a vital road win with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory at TD Garden vs. Boston (14-3-2). The Bruins' six-game win streak is over and in the process the Canadiens take over sole possession of the Northeast Division and the Eastern Conference. The good news is that Boston has three games in hand and they only trail Montreal by two points.

A pair of fights in the second period with threats of more will be the main talking point coming out of this intense regular season meeting. Zdeno Chara got whistled for a misconduct on Alexei Emelin. Big Z unloaded on Emelin since the latter had taken a run at Tyler Seguin in the neutral zone by the benches. Unfortunately for the Bruins, they allowed the final two goals by Montreal while Chara was out for a combined 17 penalty minutes in the late second and third period.

Just as everybody predicted, Peter Budaj (31 saves) outdueled Boston's Tuukka Rask (22 saves), wait what? This had to have served as some sort of revenge for Montreal after Boston won there by 2-1 on Feb. 6; they play twice more in the regular season. Tomas Plekanec opened the scoring for Montreal with a power play goal (3rd game in a row Boston has allowed a PP goal) at 9:57 of the first period. Former Bruin Michael Ryder and also P.K. Subban had the assists on Plekanec's shot which appeared to Rask. Tyler Seguin answered with a pretty one-timer goal off a clean breakout by Boston, Patrice Bergeron (1 goal, 2 assist) and Brad Marchand (3 assists) provided the helpers. This all happened in 1:06 of game clock.

The immortal David Desharnais put up two goals although the first one was the hockey equivalent of an own goal in soccer. He banked it in off Johnny Boychuk's stick. Usually Boston dominates in the third period but tonight that became the second period. Bergeron tied it thanks to a 2-on-1 with Seguin, Marchand was credited with the second assist. Bruins rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton scored his second goal of the season to give the B's a 3-2 advantage. Marchand and Bergeron both put up assists on the play but truthfully Hamilton did most of the heavy lifting as he batted a pouncing puck past Budaj from a sharp angle.

After Boston took their only lead of the game, that's when things started to go downhill. Milan Lucic fought his old nemesis Brandon Prust (3 total fights between those guys in their careers) then Chara went by the unwritten rule for the B's to protect their own by taking out Emelin. The Canadiens are having a great start to the season and it continued as Max Pacioretty tied it up with a screened shot from the point. Desharnais scored his second goal by simply crashing the net.

The best cure for Boston will be to beat the Capitals (8-11-1, 4th in Southeast Division) on Tuesday night (7 p.m., NESN) in DC. They haven't played them yet this season but the Bruins should be very motivated to get back to their winning ways while also keeping the team that knocked them out of last spring's playoffs in misery. I only bring it up not as an excuse but a notable fact this concluded a three-games in four days stretch for the B's. They also had games on back-to-back days.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Enjoy Missing The Playoffs Montreal

Let me be the first to say: smell you later Montreal, enjoy not making the playoffs this season.

The Boston Bruins did their best to end the regular season series with their biggest rival positively as they won 4-3 in a shootout tonight at the Bell Centre.

Boston (35-18-2) was in control, up 3-1 heading into the third but credit Montreal (23-25-10) for rallying with two goals and forcing overtime. However, the Bruins got the last laugh as Tyler Seguin scored the only shootout goal and Tim Thomas (26 saves; 24-11-0) stopped all three Canadiens shooters.

After losing the first two in October, the B's won the final four against the Habs. It was standard procedure that the finale had to feature some batshit crazy incidents. For instance, four goaltender interference penalties were called in the second (two on each team). Montreal fans proved that they're still the worst in the NHL as they cheered when a puck hit Zdeno Chara in the face, causing him to get stitches. Frankly, I am happy to say goodbye to those clowns who fell to eight points out of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.

Besides the two points, the best part about the victory for Boston was that so many guys that had been cold woke up and made big plays. Just look at who scored the goals: Andrew Ference, Benoit Pouliot and Patrice Bergeron. In short, it was a great way to start their longest road trip of the season.

After Adam McQuaid and Ryan White traded heavy punches, Ference (5th of the season) made it 1-0 at 17:09 of the first from Brad Marchand (more on him later).

Mathieu Darche (5th of the season) tied it at 1 with a shorthanded tally (first one Boston had allowed this season, the last team to give one up) at 1:39 of the second. He drove to the net and P.K. Subban put it on his stick for the redirection.

Pouliot (9th of the season) pulled off a typical Pouliot move: amazing and completely out of nowhere. He put the puck through a Montreal player's legs than put it through Carey Price's (31 saves) legs. Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley had the assists.

At 14:33, Bergeron (17th of the season) increased the lead to 3-1 as he roofed a tough angle shot over Price. The power play goal was assisted by Seguin and Chara.

The second period ended with some more controversy about a Marchand hit. He clipped Alexei Emelin not as blatantly as the one in the Canucks game, but he'll likely be hearing from Brendan Shanahan again.

The Canadiens almost rallied for an epic win as Max Pacioretty (24th of the season) snuck a shot by Thomas at 3:34 and Erik Cole (22nd of the season) tied it at 11:12 thanks to Chara's mind-numbing giveaway.

It was an ugly game but the Bruins got the job done which is all that matters after they were completely outplayed last night against the Rangers. Up next, Boston travels to Winnipeg on Friday. The Jets beat the B's in Winnipeg back in December (2-1 on Dec. 6) but Boston paid them back with a 5-3 win Jan. 10 at the Garden.

There is no question that Tuukka Rask will get the start since Thomas played the last two nights, something which doesn't often happen. Unfortunately, it looks like Peverley will miss some time since he left with a knee injury tonight and never returned. Hopefully it's not too serious.

UPDATE 2/16: Peverley was sent home for further examination. He was injured on a knee to knee hit by former Bruin Hal Gill.

Marchand will not be fined or suspended for his hit which apparently was enough of a hip check to only merit a two-minute penalty. Still, with less than a second on the clock and the puck far away from Boston's goal, he needs to be a little smarter than that.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Could anything else have gone wrong last night for the Bruins in Montreal?

Last night was one of the very rare times this season that I've decided to forgo watching a Bruins game. I always tape them and almost always, despite knowing the final result, I view it after work on DVR.

Frankly I wasn't in the mood late last night or this morning. The Montreal Canadiens won their fourth out of five games against the Boston Bruins this season, 4-1 at the Bell Centre.

The teams meet one more time in the regular season but it's not too early to say that the Bs must avoid Montreal in the playoffs. For whatever reason, they don't matchup with them well at all and can't play their game.

With good reason, the only thing that anyone is talking about from last night's game is the possibly dirty hit by Zdeno Chara on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty.

I was listening to the game on the radio when it happened but I saw the replay approximately a million times and have sifted through all the reaction on Twitter since then.

The bottom line is that Pacioretty got carted off the ice on a stretcher with a severe concussion and broken vertebrae in his neck. Chara threw him into the boards and Pacioretty hit the stanchion in between the benches. Was it intentional or was it bad luck? We'll never know but I will say that Chara is a monster in size but he's not dirty.

We'll have to wait and see if the NHL decides to suspend Chara.

This wasn't much of a contest as Montreal (37-23-7) was up 4-0 in the second period before Pacioretty got hurt with 16 seconds left in the frame. Chara got a five minute for interference and a game misconduct. Since the delay was so long, the referees made the wise decision to just end that period and send the teams to the dressing rooms.

Lars Eller (who?) scored a pair of goals in the first period for the Canadiens. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (22 saves) was beaten two more times, both on the power play, in the second period.

Brian Gionta and James Wisniewski both scored. Gionta's shot trickled over the line, one that Rask would surely love to have back. Wisniewski's was a screened blast from the point.

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (30 saves) stopped Brad Marchand's penalty shot (after being tripped on a breakaway by Roman Hamrlik) but Milan Lucic finally beat him at 13:21 of the third period to avoid the shutout. Lucic's 29th of the season was assisted by David Krejci.

The Bruins come home to face the red-hot Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night at TD Garden. After being out of the playoff picture for most of the season, the Sabres have put themselves in the discussion with some strong play.

When it comes to soul-crushing losses, the Boston Bruins have the market cornered

I am thankful that I missed most of the Boston Bruins' epic loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night. I had it DVR'd but after I saw the ending, I was straight with seeing any more of the latest turd burger

Since it was the first day of the NFL playoffs, I was watching those much more important games but still managed to catch almost all of the soul-crushing moments of Boston's 3-2 overtime loss to Montreal (23-16-3) at the Bell Centre.

Patrice Bergeron had given the Bs (21-12-7) a 2-0 lead and it appeared like the Northeastern Conference showdown would end nicely for the visitors.

With 2:22 left in the third period, Scott Gomez scored on a fluky power play goal when he just threw the puck at the net and somehow Tim Thomas (39 saves) didn't see it until it was too late.

Zdeno Chara had a good chance to end it with a long shot on Montreal's empty net but it went thru the crease and just wide. I would have said what I was thinking out loud (watch the Canadiens tie this up) but you can't mess with things like that in matters of the Boston Bruins. They are cursed enough as it is.

Wouldn't you know with 48 seconds left, Brian Gionta tied it up from James Wisniewski and Max Pacioretty. It was reviewed since it appeared maybe he kicked it in but no dice, they made the right call that it wasn't intentional.

At that point, you had seen this movie before and it ended like it always does: with Pacioretty scoring 3:43 into overtime. Boston received a point but it's hard to picture a much more pathetic collapse (in the regular season) in a big spot.

After a scoreless first period, Bergeron scored his goals 8:09 apart. Blake Wheeler and Brad Marchand assisted on the first one with Mark Recchi and Chara with the helpers on the second.

Montreal goaltender Carey Price (27 saves) did enough to get the win in front of his bobo home crowd.

The road doesn't get any easier this week as the Bruins travel to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins. The good news for them is that Sidney Crosby is out with a concussion.

Just in time for the Holidays: the Bruins poop in your stocking and puke under your Christmas tree

Oh god damn it, why must the Boston Bruins torture us so much?

After sleepwalking through the start of last night's game at the Bell Centre in Montreal, that was enough to give the Canadiens a 4-3 win.

The Bruins (16-10-4) scored each goal as they frantically tried to scramble from an early 2-0 deficit but it wasn't enough as they suffered their third straight loss.

At this point, I'm with Mike Felger - the Bruins need to seriously shake this up and there's only two ways to do that: 1) make a big trade or 2) fire head coach Claude Julien. Since you know they won't do the first choice, I'll take door number two.

This team has no balls and they're on cruise control as per usual. They'll make the playoffs but then they'll fall apart as they always do in the spring. After all, they've lost three straight Game 7s.

Ok, end of rant. Losing to Montreal (19-11-2) is never fun but especially on a night like last night when a win would have vaulted the Bs to a first-place tie (and theoretically snapped them out of this latest funk).

Unfortunately nobody gave Boston the memo that it was a big game. Michael Cammalleri earned a bogus penalty shot just 1:04 into the game and deked Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (37 saves) for the 1-0 lead.

Maxim Lapierre (from Mathieu Darche, Alexandre Picard) increased it to 2-0 Montreal with a goal at 6:24 of the first period.

Blake Wheeler benefited from a lucky goal on Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (34 saves) to give Boston some life at 15:52 from Mark Recchi and Patrice Bergeron.

With 30 seconds left in the first period, the wheels fell off as a harmless pass from Max Pacioretty banked into the Bruins' net off defenseman Andrew Ference's skate. Scott Gomez and Jaroslav Spacek assisted on the complete gift which signaled serious trouble for the Bs.

This team is stubborn though and they cut it to 3-2 in the second period on Marc Savard's first goal of the season. He tipped a shot from Ference, Tyler Seguin also assisted by firing it back to Ference at the point.

Of course, nothing is simple right now for Boston so they had to give up another back-breaking goal late in the second period. Brian Gionta tipped a shot by Pacioretty with Gomez also notching an assist.

Milan Lucic tallied a power-play goal at 15:10 in the third period, from Bergeron and Savard. Lucic tipped Bergeron's shot from the point, for his team-leading 16th of the season.

Believe it or not, Thomas actually played well and garbage like weak penalty shot calls and tough bounces just didn't go his way. He made a bunch of A+ saves that would not have gone most goaltenders' way.

If you've watched 24/7 Capitals-Penguins on HBO which premiered on HBO on Wednesday, you know what a mess the Caps are at this time. With that said, the Bruins are starting to go over the cliff too so Saturday night's game at the TD Garden is a really important one for both teams.

Time for the Bruins to step up or continue to spiral backwards in the Eastern Conference.