Bruins Pick Up Their Third Straight Win Against The Canadiens, 2-1 At TD Garden

How much of a mess are the Montreal Canadiens this season? Well they pulled a bush league move that I've never even heard of by trading forward Michael Cammalleri to the Calgary Flames for forward Rene Bourque, between periods of a game.

The best part is that Cammalleri likely got shipped out of town because he ripped the Canadiens organization the other day for their "losing mentality". Just great stuff.

This all happened tonight as the Habs (16-20-7) fell 2-1 to the Bruins (28-11-1) in a meeting that was a complete snoozer as far as this storied rivalry goes.

Boston recorded its third straight win against Montreal-after starting the season with two consecutive losses-thanks to a fluky goal from Jordan Caron, a nice backhander from Milan Lucic and 33 saves by Tim Thomas (18-7-0).

The fact that Vancouver was here last weekend and also that the Canadiens sit 18 points behind the Bruins in the Northeast Division took some juice away from this matchup.

Of course, P.K. Subban had to do something cowardly while he was at the Garden so he chose to give David Krejci a forearm shiver to his head. Andrew Ference jumped all over Subban but all the Canadiens defenseman could do was lay on the ice with his hands covering his head. Really.

Caron was a surprise addition to the lineup after getting called up from Providence yesterday. He took Zach Hamill's spot. 1:23 into the proceedings, Johnny Boychuk's dump in took a crazy bounce off the back boards leaving Montreal goaltender Carey Price (28 saves) totally out of position (somewhere Roberto Luongo lectures the media). Caron (2nd of the season) got an easy tap-in with Zdeno Chara picking up the second assist.

After a scoreless second period, Lucic (15th of the season) scored the game-winner at 3:43 of the third on a backhander. Nathan Horton set him up from behind the net and Krejci (points in 10 straight games) had the other assist.

Ference was tagged with two penalties so the Canadiens took advantage as Yannick Weber (4th of the season) ended Thomas's shutout bid at 12:46 with a screened blast from the point.

This concluded a four-game homestand for the Bruins, all against Canadian teams. They went 3-1 and now they head out to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. Hopefully nothing too crazy happens because I'll be watching only be watching bits and pieces of it between commercials during the Patriots-Broncos game.

Boston has one final game in Montreal, on February 15, but after that they can bid adieu to an opponent that is going nowhere fast this season. I'd be shocked if the Canadiens made the playoffs. At least they have a bunch of other professional teams and sports to focus on up there, oh wait.

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Why do we even bother?

Before Game 2 had even started, the Boston Bruins were already cooked. Zdeno Chara spent Friday night in a hospital due to dehydration and he was a last-minute scratch for last night's pivotal game at TD Garden.

Some teams might use their Captain's absence as motivation but oh no, not our Bruins. The most fragile team in the NHL and maybe all of sports completely folded under the pressure (as always) and fell flat on their face in a depressing as hell 3-1 loss.

Montreal now leads the series 2-0 as it shifts to the Bell Centre for Game 3 tomorrow night.

All five goals that the Canadiens have scored so far in the first two games are direct results of egregious turnovers by the Bruins in their own end.

To make matters worse, Boston spotted Montreal two goals last night in the first 2:20 of the first period. After Game 1's debacle, I said Game 2 would be all about the first goal.

Well 43 seconds in and Mike Cammalleri scored from James Wisniewski. At 2:20, Montreal was on a power play when Mathieu Darche scored from Cammalleri.

You couldn't possibly script a worse beginning and just like that, the Bruins were done in the game and probably the series. They've never won a series (in 26 tries) after being down 0-2.

Carey Price is a good goaltender but the Bruins are making him look the second coming of Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek. Price stopped 34 shots but once again, Boston failed to get bodies in front of him or capitalize on the few rebounds he allowed.

He made one spectacular save as he robbed Milan Lucic with his glove after Looch was set up right in front of the net.

On the flip side, can we agree that Tim Thomas is simply a regular season monster? Much like Claude Julien is a regular season coach? Up to this point, how can we say that either does anything but pee down their leg in the playoffs?

The Bruins finally got on the board with their first goal of the series at 7:38 of the second period as Brad Marchand fed a perfect tip in to Patrice Bergeron. Mark Recchi also assisted.

Unfortunately, all that hard work was nullified by Thomas (23 saves) who gave up a juicy rebound right to Yannick Weber. He scored at 17:21 of the second period from Lars Eller and Roman Hamrlik. That was it, you knew the Bruins had absolutely no chance to recover from that.

Honestly, they are done. Short of Julien being fired today and Tuukka Rask getting the surprise start in Game 3, I don't see how this team can overcome all their playoff shortcomings. The Canadiens are playing with more desperation and heart while the Bruins continue to add new head-scratching chapters to their pathetic legacy.