For the fourth time in seven postseasons, the greatest rivals in the National Hockey League will square off against one another in the first round. This season, in a complete role reversal from their tilt last spring, the Boston Bruins find themselves as the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference as they prepare to take on the #8 seed Montreal Canadiens.
History has not been kind to the Black and Gold. This series will mark the 32nd time the two have met up in the postseason, with the Habs owning a dominant 24-7 record against the B's.
2002
In 2002 the two clashed in the exact same scenario with the B's as the top dog in the east with 101 points (43-24-6-9) and the 8th seeded Habs with 87 points (36-31-12-3).
TEAM LEADERS: BOSTON
GOALS: Bill Guerin (41)
ASSISTS: Jozef Stumpel (47)
POINTS: Sergei Samsonov (70)
PIM: Joe Thornton (127)
WINS: Byron Dafoe (35)
GAA: Byron Dafoe (2.21)
TEAM LEADERS: MONTREAL
GOALS: Yanic Perreault (27)
ASSISTS: Doug Gilmour (31)
POINTS: Yanic Perreault (56)
PIM: Gino Odjick (104)
WINS: Jose Theodore (30)
GAA: Jose Theodore (2.11)
SEASON SERIES
The Bruins won the season series 3-2, outscoring Montreal 19-14 in their 5 matchups.
DOWN THE STRETCH
The Bruins managed to go 4-3-1-2 in their last ten games, and closed out the season with a 7-0 win over the Penguins. The Habs, in a fight to squeak into the postseason, went 7-3-0-0 in their final ten games, but finished the regular season on a two game losing streak.
THE POSTSEASON SERIES
Game 1: Montreal 5 @ Boston 2
Game 2: Montreal 4 @ Boston 6
Game 3: Boston 3 @ Montreal 5
Game 4: Boston 5 @ Montreal 2
Game 5: Montreal 2 @ Boston 1
Game 6: Boston 1 @ Montreal 2
Montreal took down the B's in 6 games, with a major turning point occurring when Kyle McLaren cheap-shotted Richard Zednik late in the third period of game 4 with the Bruins up by three:
With the series tied at 2-2 after game 4, the Habs edged out Boston on the road with a 2-1 victory in game 5 then closed out the series in the exact same fashion back in Montreal, winning game 6 by a score of 2-1. The Habs then moved on to play the Hurricanes who defeated them 4-2 in the second round. The Canes would go on to reach the Stanley Cup Finals, losing the series 4-1 to Detroit.
BRUIN STUDS
Bill Guerin: 6gp, 4-2-6
Joe Thornton: 6gp, 2-4-6
Brian Rolston: 6gp, 4-1-5
BRUIN DUDS
Byron Dafoe: 6gp, way too many goals against (not even worth counting, just look at the final scores).
Glen Murray: 35 goals in 73 regular season games, 1 goal in 6 playoff games.
Sean Brown: 4gp, the most useless defender of all time.
2004
After falling to New Jersey in the 2003 playoffs as the #7 seed, the Bruins returned to the top of the Northeast Division during the 03-04 campaign. Boston went 41-19-15-7 (104pts) and finished the season two point behind top seeded Tampa Bay. The Habs, meanwhile, were coming off of a season in which they failed to qualify for the playoffs. Under new Head Coach Claude Julien, the team turned things around. The Habs qualified for the postseason, finishing 7th in the East with a record of 41-30-7-4 (93pts).
TEAM LEADERS: BOSTON
GOALS: Glen Murray (32)
ASSISTS: Joe Thornton (50)
POINTS: Joe Thornton (73)
PIM: Sean O'Donnell (110)
WINS: Andrew Raycroft (29)
GAA: Andrew Raycroft (2.05)
TEAM LEADERS: MONTREAL
GOALS: Richard Zednik (26)
ASSISTS: Mike Ribeiro (45)
POINTS: Mike Ribeiro (65)
PIM: Darren Langdon (135)
WINS: Jose Theodore (33)
GAA: Jose Theodore, Mathieu Garon (2.27)
SEASON SERIES
The Bruins won the series going 3-1-1-1, outscoring Montreal 9-7 in the process.
DOWN THE STRETCH
The Bruins finished strong in their final ten games, going 6-3-1-0. They closed out the year with a 3-1 win over the Devils to lockup the division (edging Toronto by a single point). The Habs went 4-4-1-1 down the stretch, winning their final game 6-3 over Buffalo to stay above NYI for the 7th seed.
THE POSTSEASON SERIES
Game 1: Montreal 0 @ Boston 3
Game 2: Montreal 1 @ Boston 2
Game 3: Boston 2 @ Montreal 3
Game 4: Boston 4 @ Montreal 3
Game 5: Montreal 5 @ Boston 1
Game 6: Boston 2 @ Montreal 5
Game 7: Montreal 2 @ Bruins 0
The B's held a commanding 3-1 lead with two of the three remaining games set to take place at the Fleet Center. Glen Murray's OT winner in game 4 should've put a dagger into the Habs' hearts after Alex Kovalev's egregious gaffe/sad attempt to earn his team a PP:
But once again, the Habs stepped it up and dominated the next two games before shutting out the Bruins 2-0 in game 7. Montreal would go on to get swept in the next round, getting outscored 14-5 in their 4 games against eventual champs Tampa Bay.
BRUIN STUDS
Sergei Samsonov: 7gp, 2-5-7
Michael Nylander: 6gp, 3-3-6
Sergei Gonchar: 7gp, 1-4-5
BRUIN DUDS
Joe Thornton: A rib injury hindered the B's captain all series. He posted a goose egg in 7 games.
Brian Rolston: After coming up big in 2002 against Montreal, Rolly had just 1 goal and zero assists in 7 games.
Martin Lapointe: Heavily overpaid RW had zero points in 7 games.
2008
After two disheartening seasons following the lockout, the Bruins finally returned to postseason play under the guidance of new Head Coach Claude Julien. Julien led the hard working B's to a 41-29-12 record (94 points), finishing as the 8th seed in the East. The Canadiens, meanwhile, surprised many by running away with the Northeast Division. They finished as the top dog in the East with 104 points, going 47-25-10 during the regular season.
TEAM LEADERS: BOSTON
GOALS: Marco Sturm (27)
ASSISTS: Marc Savard (63)
POINTS: Marc Savard (78)
PIM: Zdeno Chara (114)
WINS: Tim Thomas (28)
GAA: Alex Auld (2.32)
TEAM LEADERS: MONTREAL
GOALS: Alex Kovalev (35)
ASSISTS: Alex Kovalev, Mark Streit (49)
POINTS: Alex Kovalev (84)
PIM: Tom Kostopoulos (113)
WINS: Carey Price (24)
GAA: Jaroslav Halak (2.11)
SEASON SERIES
The Habs just flat out embarrassed the Bruins during the 07-08 regular season. The B's were a woeful 0-7-1 against Montreal, outscored by the Habs 39-15 in the process.
DOWN THE STRETCH
Boston finished the regular season 4-2-4 in their final ten games while the Habs went 8-1-1 down the stretch. The B's lost their final game against Buffalo to lock themselves in as the 8th seed (losers of a tiebreaker against Ottawa) while the Canadiens concluded the regular season on a three game winning streak.
THE POSTSEASON SERIES
Game 1: Boston 1 @ Montreal 4
Game 2: Boston 2 @ Montreal 3
Game 3: Montreal 1 @ Boston 2
Game 4: Montreal 1 @ Boston 0
Game 5: Boston 5 @ Montreal 1
Game 6: Montreal 4 @ Boston 5
Game 7: Boston 0 @ Montreal 5
While the Bruins failed to win their first postseason series in a decade, and lost to their wretched rivals yet again, they accomplished a feat that no other Bruins team had done in quite some: they got the city, as a whole, to care about hockey again. They revived a dormant love for the great sport by putting a scare into the heavily favored Canadiens, winning one of the most exciting games in the history of hockey in the process:
As long as youtube exists, I know I can always watch those highlights again and relive the joy that game brought. It still gives me chills. The Habs would yet again fall in the second round after defeating the Bruins, this time bowing out against Philadelphia. The Flyers took care of the Habs in just 5 games, outscoring them 20-14 in the series.
BRUIN STUDS
Marc Savard: 7gp, 1-5-6
Marco Sturm: 7gp, 2-2-4
Phil Kessel: 4gp, 3-1-4
David Krejci: 7gp, 1-4-5
BRUIN DUDS
Glen Murray: 7gp, 0-0-0
Jeremy Reich: 4gp, 0-0-0 with a few costly minor penalties to boot.
And here we are now, in 2009, ready to square off with the "underdog" rivals to the north yet again. Can the Bruins, boasting a squad with more depth than any other team in the Hub of Hockey has had in nearly 20 years, finally conquer their demons and defeat the bleu, blanc et rouge? Who will be invisible when the heat is on? Who will be the hero in crunch time? Only time will tell.
I'll be back tomorrow with a position-by-position breakdown, comparing the Canadiens and Bruins lineups.
JC
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