Montreal is riding a four-game win streak, coming off a shootout win over the Oilers Thursday, and have won five of six since returning from the Olympic break. The Habs have climbed to a tie for sixth in the East, equaling the Flyers at 74 points. Two points behind them sit the Bruins, whose 72 points are good for the eighth and final playoff spot, just three points ahead of the ninth-place Rangers.

Plenty to talk about heading into this one, with lots on the line for Boston’s playoff positioning. Let’s dive right into some pre-game notes, leading into tonight’s skate with the hated Habs…

• Boston is 1-2-2 vs. Montreal this season, with their only win coming at the Bell Centre on Super Bowl Sunday, a 3-0 shutout win for Tuukka Rask and the B’s. Montreal took the last meeting back on March 2nd in the first game back from the Olympic break.
• During Montreal’s four-game win streak, the team has put up a Capitals-esque 3.67 goals per game, with Jaroslav Halak minding the net in all four contests. According to early reports today, expect Halak in net tonight for the Habs. Halak is 21-10-2 with a 2.54GAA. Carey Price (13-19-4, 2.82GAA), who is 3-0-0 vs. Boston this season with a 0.97GAA in those three games, will back up Halak.
• Forward Maxim Lapierre will make his return to the lineup tonight after serving a four-game suspension. Who knew the league actually suspends guys for illegal hits? Just when they feel like it, I guess…
• In terms of the bumped and bruised, Montreal has a pair of knee injuries that will keep two of their stars out in Mike Cammalleri and Marc-Andre Bergeron. Boston will of course be without center Marc Savard, along with defenseman Andrew Ference (groin). Miroslav Satan, who missed Thursday’s game, will be a game-time decision after practicing with the team yesterday. If he can’t go, look for Brad Marchand to be back in the lineup.
• Scoring for Montreal is led by center Tomas Plekanec (20G, 44A), followed by Scott Gomez (12G, 38A) and injured forward Mike Cammalleri (26G, 22A).
• The Habs feature a trio of former Bruins, led by center Glen Metropolit, who has a career-high 15 goals this season. Also on the Montreal roster from Bruins days gone by are a pair of defensemen, Paul Mara and Hal Gill.
• Patrice Bergeron, now centering the top forward line alongside Marco Sturm and Mark Recchi, has five points in the last two games. His team-leading 43 points has helped pace the offense all season long. Behind Bergeron on the stat sheet is a quartet of Bruins, all tied at 35 points: Sturm, Recchi, Zdeno Chara, and David Krejci.
• Tonight’s game features the league’s second-best power play unit (Montreal, 23.4%) against one of the league’s top penalty killing teams (Boston, 86.0% – tie for first w/ STL).

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2010. | Permalink | No comment
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Montreal, who currently sits just one point behind Boston in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, won the first three matchups this season over Boston, but the B’s and hot goalie Tuukka Rask shut the Habs down on Super Bowl Sunday in their last meeting, winning 3-0 and ending the Bruins’ 10-game losing streak. It was the first of their four straight wins heading into the Olympic break.

Tonight’s game will also mark the last time these teams will hit the ice before Wednesday afternoon’s trade deadline, sure to make for an interesting day around the entire NHL. Boston GM Peter Chiarelli has been burning up the phone lines, in search mainly for a puck-moving defenseman and an offensive-minded winger, both of which will be extremely hard to come by and will come with high price tags in exchange. But as the league’s lowest-scoring team, look for Chiarelli to add some scoring punch to bolster his anemic offense before 3pm Wednesday.

Getting back tonight’s task at hand though, let’s dive in and take a closer look at some game notes heading into this Original Six rivalry game…

• Boston will be looking for their first win at TD Garden in 2010. Their last home win came on New Year’s Day at Fenway Park in the Winter Classic. Before that, their last Garden victory came over Atlanta on December 30th.
• Late news out of the team’s morning skate indicates that Canadian gold medalist and Bruins leading point man Patrice Bergeron will be out of the lineup tonight, nursing a slight groin pull he sustained in Sunday’s gold medal game against the U.S. Bergeron is considered day-to-day and hopes to return Thursday against Toronto. Beyond that, the B’s should be sporting a fully healthy lineup, with defensemen Mark Stuart (finger) and Johnny Boychuk (orbital bone) back in action, ready to suit up.
• The Canadiens will also be missing a Bergeron tonight, as defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron remains out for the Habs with an undisclosed lower-body injury. Also out for Montreal is the team’s leading goal scorer Mike Cammalleri, who is sidelined with a knee injury.
• While injuries have been a constant headline for Boston throughout this season, Montreal has battled just as many injuries as well. Both the Habs and B’s have only four roster members each that have appeared in every one of their team’s games. For Montreal, Tomas Plekanec, Travis Moen, Maxim Lapierre, and Josh Gorges have 63 games played on their stat lines, while in Boston, captain Zdeno Chara, veteran winger Mark Recchi, Blake Wheeler, and Michael Ryder have earned the perfect attendance award for the B’s thus far.
• Montreal boasts five players who appeared in the Olympic hockey tournament, but none who earned medals. Slovakia’s goalie Jaroslav Halak came closest, losing to Finland in the bronze medal game. For Boston, six players skated in Vancouver over the past two weeks, with Bergeron earning gold for Canada and goalie Tim Thomas taking home the silver as part of U.S.A.’s roster.
• According to early reports, both Halak and Thomas will not see action tonight, getting some added rest after their Vancouver voyage. Instead, Carey Price will start tonight for the Habs (12-18-4, 2.81GAA), who has two wins in two starts against Boston this season. Price is 8-2-2 lifetime against the Bruins. In goal for the B’s will be the league’s goals-against leader in Tuukka Rask (14-7-4, 2.08GAA), who looks to build on his four-game win streak.
• Leading the scoring for Montreal is center Tomas Plekanec (17G, 43A), followed by injured forward Mike Cammalleri (26G, 22A). Center Scott Gomez rounds out the team’s top three offensive stars (10G, 32A).
• Montreal’s powerful power play is second only to the mighty Capitals in scoring percentage, at 24.6%.
• Lastly, be sure to keep checking SportsofBoston.com leading up to Wednesday afternoon’s trade deadline, for all the big stories on player movement throughout the league.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2010. | Permalink | No comment
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It was a historic night at TD Garden Thursday night, but for all the wrong reasons. The bumbling Bruins found a way to blow a two-goal lead, then fell in the shootout to the Canadiens, 3-2. The loss marked the ninth in a row for the B’s, making this the longest losing streak for the franchise since the 1924-25 season.

Boston lit the lamp first on a late first period power play, when Mark Recchi potted his 11th goal of the season to give the B’s a 1-0 lead. The B’s added to that advantage in the second, when Blake Wheeler knocked home a rebound off a David Krejci wrister, past Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak, to double the Boston lead. 

The Bruins held that lead until late in the second, when Montreal capitalized on a power play chance of their own, as former Bruin Glen Metropolit pushed one past Tuukka Rask to get the Habs on the board. Just 39 seconds later, Montreal’s Roman Hamrlik tied the score, driving one past Rask to even the game at 2-2.

Both teams went scoreless in the third period and overtime, and through two rounds of the shootout, the goalies kept both teams off the scoreboard. Then came former B.C. Eagle Brian Gionta, who flipped the puck past Rask to give Montreal their first lead of the game. Boston’s Marc Savard couldn’t answer the score, stoned by Jaroslav Halak, leaving the Bruins empty-handed, beaten by the Canadiens for the third straight time this season, 3-2 in the shootout.

To add insult to injury, it seems as if the Bruins have also lost the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes. USA Today was first to report Thursday evening that Atlanta has traded the talented winger to the New Jersey Devils. Who and what the Devils sent in exchange for the highly coveted Russian is still unknown, but reports indicate that there are two roster players, a prospect, and a draft pick involved. New Jersey is second in the Eastern Conference, behind Washington. The rich just keep getting richer.

Back in Boston, the B’s will look yet again to get themselves two points in the win column Saturday afternoon when they host the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver is in the midst of the NHL’s longest road trip ever, a voyage that will take them to 14 different cities, due to the preparations being made in the city for the upcoming Olympic games. The Bruins will hit the road themselves after Saturday’s matinee for their final four games before the Olympic break, beginning Sunday afternoon against these same Canadiens.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2010. | Permalink | One comment
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Boston looked like they might pull a win out of their hat Tuesday night, fighting hard against the East leading Washington Capitals through the first 40 minutes of play. But, as the Bruins have been known to do this season, they weren’t able to complete the effort down the stretch, giving up three third period goals and eventually falling to the Caps, 4-1. The loss extended the woeful losing streak to eight games (0-6-2), a losing streak that marks the longest in the franchise’s history since 1955. Boston hasn’t lost nine straight since the 1924-25 season, when they lost 11 in a row.

Montreal was able to snap a three-game skid of their own on Tuesday night with an improbable win over Vancouver, 3-2, behind 45 saves from goalie Jaroslav Halak. The Habs currently occupy the East’s seventh seed, but have just a three-point advantage over Boston, who sits at 12th. Boston also has three games in hand over Montreal.

Here we go with some game notes, leading into tonight’s match-up on Causeway Street…

• This will be the third meeting between these two division rivals. The teams haven’t faced one another in over two months, when Montreal handed the B’s a 5-1 loss back on Dec. 4, the night the Canadiens celebrated their franchise’s 100th anniversary. Before that, the Habs knocked off the Bruins 2-1 in overtime on Nov. 5. The B’s will face Montreal in four of their next 13 games.
• Judging by early reports, tonight’s goaltender match-up will feature Boston’s Tuukka Rask against Montreal’s Jaroslav Halak (15-8-2, 2.43GAA). Halak hasn’t faced Boston yet this season, as Carey Price (11-17-4, 2.73GAA) was in net for both meetings earlier this season.
• Montreal will be without their leading goal scorer for the next six weeks, as Mike Cammalleri was knocked out of action in Saturday’s game with Ottawa. Cammalleri injured his right knee in the game and won’t be back until mid-March. Cammalleri’s linemate, Andrei Kostitsyn, will also miss tonight’s game with a lower body injury.
• Along with Cammalleri (26G, 22A), the Habs’ offense is led by center Tomas Plekanec (14G, 41A) and former Devil Scott Gomez (7G, 28A).
• Tuesday, the Bruins faced the league’s top power play unit, the Capitals. Tonight, they go up against the second-ranked team on the man advantage, with Montreal at a 25.2% power play percentage. Boston currently ranks third on the penalty kill at 86.7%.
• Only the Colorado Avalanche put less shots on goal than the Canadiens, whose 27.7 shots per game rank 29th in the league. Conversely, the Habs allow 32.9 shots per game from their opponent, good for 27th most league-wide.
• A trio of familiar faces have jumped to the dark side of this storied rivalry. Former Bruins Paul Mara, Glen Metropolit, and Hal Gill all don the “bleu, blanc, et rouge” of Montreal nowadays. Mara will not be in action tonight however, as he is currently on injured reserve.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2010. | Permalink | No comment
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Boston comes into the game as one of the hottest teams in the league, currently enjoying a 6-0-1 stretch in their last seven games, and just one regulation loss in their last 12. The Habs on the other hand, are losers of their last four, including last night’s 6-2 thumping at the hands of division leading Buffalo. With just 26 points in 28 games, Montreal finds themselves on the outside looking in on the early playoff picture, currently sitting in a tie for 12th in the East with Florida.

Let’s take a closer look at the “bleu, blanc, et rouge,” heading into tonight’s big Original Six tilt…

• Scoring may be at a premium this evening, as both of tonight’s combatants feature below-average offenses. The Habs currently rank next to last in the NHL at a woeful 2.29 goals per game, ahead of only Carolina’s 2.18. Boston, while hot as of late, isn’t much better on the year, ranked 27th at 2.33. Both teams’ power play units also have seen their struggles this season. Montreal, with a 16.9% mark, ranks 25th, while Boston’s 17.0% mark is good for 24th. Montreal has just 83 power play opportunities on the season, a league low.
• The injury bug has hit the Habs pretty hard as of late. Montreal will be without ex-BC Eagle Brian Gionta, who nurses a broken foot. Also sidelined for the Canadiens tonight will be defenseman Andrei Markov (ankle) and newly acquired forward Benoit Pouliot (hand). Old friend Hal Gill, who has been out the last 14 games with a broken foot of his own, is likely to return to the lineup this evening.
• Scoring for the Habs is led by center Tomas Plekanec, who has six goals and a team-high 19 assists on the year. Following Plekanec on the stat sheet is winger Mike Cammalleri (12G, 10A), who had the game-winner in the shootout of the first meeting between these two teams, a game that ended as a 2-1 Montreal win back on November 5th.
• Early indications from this morning’s team skate point to tonight being a matchup of two #1 goaltenders, Carey Price (7-10-2, 2.86GAA) for the Habs against Boston’s Tim Thomas. Price is backed up by Jaroslav Halak (5-4-0, 2.99GAA). Halak was in net last night, giving up six goals to the Sabres.
• Beyond the local ties Gionta and Gill have to the area, also highlighted on the Montreal roster are ex-Bruins Paul Mara and Glen Metropolit.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
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Boston (6-7-1) will look to avoid their third straight shutout after falling 1-0 and 2-0 in their last two contests, to the Rangers and Red Wings respectively. The last time Boston was shut out twice in a row before this was back in March of 2007, and to find the last shutout streak of three games, you’d have to go back 80 years to 1929. It was then that the Bruins went scoreless in defeat to a trio that included the Toronto Maple Leafs, the New York Americans, and the Montreal Maroons.

Both teams have struggled out of the gate, failing to find the consistency that delivered playoff appearances for both squads last spring. Of course we all remember these two battling in the first round of last season’s playoffs, where Boston dominated play from beginning to end, sweeping the Habs in 4 straight games.

Here now, we take a closer look at tonight’s matchup of two long time rivals…

• Tonight marks the 700th meeting between these two storied franchises, dating all the way back to 1924.
• The Bruins remain very shorthanded on their top forward lines, with Marc Savard and Milan Lucic sidelined with injuries. Earlier today, center David Krejci was added to the ranks of the walking wounded, as it was confirmed that Krejci has contracted the widespread H1N1 virus, a.k.a. “swine flu.” Krejci will be out indefinitely until he can rejoin the team symptom-free.
• Injuries have piled up for Montreal as well. Defensemen Andrei Markov (ankle) and familiar face Hal Gill (foot) will both be out long term, while bruiser Georges Laraque is considered day-to-day as he struggles through back issues.
• Up front for Montreal, the Habs have been led by veteran Tomas Plekanec (4G, 10A) and newcomer Mike Cammalleri (7G, 7A), along with a pair of former Devils, Scott Gomez (2G, 8A) and ex-BC Eagle Brian Gionta (6G, 4A).
• In net, the Habs feature two highly touted young goalies that have had contrasting starts to the season thus far. Carey Price (2-6-0, 3.64GAA) has struggled mightily in his starts, while Jaroslav Halak (5-2-0, 2.85GAA) has shown more promise.
• Montreal will be looking to end their current five-game road losing streak. They are coming off a 5-4 loss at home Tuesday against Atlanta.
• The Habs feature a trio of former Bruins, including the injured, Concord-born Hal Gill, defenseman Paul Mara, and center Glen Metropolit.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Filed under: Bruins.