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The month of November has been one hell of a test for the Boston Bruins. It’s been the first full month with
Zdeno Chara (knee) out of commission, and one that’s left the Bruins without the services of top-line center
David Krejci (undisclosed) on an on-again, off-again basis. They’ve also had to battle through injuries to other pieces, like a Brad Marchand, Kevan Miller, and most recently, Adam McQuaid.
And it’s been a mixed bag of results for the B’s, to be honest. They’ve strung some wins together. They’ve been ugly, mind you, but they’ve done it. Those wins were by all means nullified when the Bruins were embarrassed in a two-day trip to Canada, outscored by a combined 11-to-2 by the Maple Leafs and Canadiens.
But the Bruins have done their best to atone for that nightmare, winning three straight, including a shutout win over the St. Louis Blues (inarguably one of the best teams in the entire league) and comeback shootout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road last night. But all of that is meaningless unless they conquer the next obstacle in their way… the first-place, without-a-doubt-in-your-head Montreal Canadiens.
That’s something the Bruins have been incapable of doing this year. At least in Montreal’s barn, anyway.
In their previous two head-to-head matchups this year, the Canadiens have outscored the Bruins by a heavy 11-to-5 margin, with the last game ending as a 5-1 beatdown from the Habs. It’s more than the final that’s irritating, though, as the Bruins have appeared to hang with the Habs throughout these contests. Well, for a little while. Boston carried a 1-0 edge over the Canadiens after one period in their last meeting, but a
Dale Weise penalty shot goal (because of course) broke the floodgates open in the middle frame. And in the game before that, it was a one-goal game all the way ‘til the end for the Black and Gold before
Milan Lucic had an absolute meltdown following an iffy penalty called against him in the final minute.
No matter the final, however, these losses have a common theme: They’re simply excruciating for the Bruins.
With the exception of a few subtractions and there (that guy pretending to be Thomas Vanek made his way to Minnesota this summer), this is the same Montreal squad that bounced the Bruins from the playoffs last spring. This is one of, if not thee biggest, team standing in your way once again this spring. And you (the Bruins), are in dire need of making a statement that says that this team won’t steamroll once more. I mean that both mentally and physically, mind you. That’s been a tough concept for the B’s to grasp, too, it seems.
When it comes to facing Montreal, the Bruins are an extreme club. They’re either extremely reckless and fall apart at the slightest bit of conflict. Or they’re too passive and get run out of the building. It’s a tough balance, especially against Montreal, but it’s something the Bruins will once again need to attempt to address.
This begins and ends with Lucic, too. After getting popped in the mouth by Dalton Prout last night (and becoming the talk of the NHL after his knees buckled, ending the fight), the Bruins will need their 6-foot-4 power forward to be that, engage, and set the tone. That doesn't mean that Lucic needs to go out there and try to fight Alexei Emelin and anybody else that looks at him funny, obviously, but when Lucic gets himself going (like he did against Carolina) last week, it's undeniably infectious and the rest of the forward corp follows his lead.
And on a Sat. night in Boston, boy oh boy would that get an already deafening crowd booming.
The Masked Men: Carey Price vs. Tuukka Rask
It should shock absolutely nobody that Montreal will give this start to their ace in net,
Carey Price. The 27-year-old Price is straight rolling, right now, coming into tonight’s game with five wins in his last six starts and posting a strong .939 save percentage over that stretch. On top of his recent hot streak, Price has won 19 of 31 career starts against the Black and Gold, including two this season, stopping all but five of the 51 shots thrown his way in 120 minutes of play. Both 2014-15 games against the Bruins were played at the Bell Centre, too. If there’s one glimmer of hope for the B’s against Price, though, it’s that he’s posted a 3.11 goals against average,.905 save percentage, and has won just seven of 14 career games at the Garden.
After giving him the night off in Columbus last night, the Bruins will counter with
Tuukka Rask. The defending Vezina’s horror stories against Montreal are well documented at this point. And in case you’ve forgotten, let’s spell it out-- in his NHL career, the Finnish netminder has won just three of 18 career contests against Montreal. He’s even worse against Montreal in Boston, too, with an 0-5-3 record against them on Garden ice. But the 27-year-old has seemed to regain his form as of late, winning two straight contests, and stopping all 33 shots thrown his way by a red-hot St. Louis Blues squad in his last start.
Stats of Note
- B’s center Patrice Bergeron has 17 goals and 43 points in 53 career games against Montreal.
- Loui Eriksson has two goals and six points in 12 home games this season.
- Dennis Seidenberg has a minus-5 rating in the second leg of a back-to-back this year (three games).
- Montreal’s Max Pacioretty has three goals and five points in two games against Boston this season.
- Tomas Plekanec has nine goals and 21 points in 28 career games at TD Garden.
- Defenseman Andrei Markov has been held without a point in five of his last seven games played.
News and Notes
Forwards
Jordan Caron and
Matt Lindblad have been called up to the Bruins on an emergency basis, while defenseman
Zach Trotman has been reassigned to the AHL. The 24-year-old Caron has scored five goals and added four assists in nine games with the P-Bruins this season, while Lindblad has registered two goals and six points in 16 AHL games this season.
This has to make you wonder one of two things-- Who else is injured? Or are the Bruins going to pull the plug on
Alexander Khokhlachev after icing him for just nine minutes last night? If Krejci’s out once again, the B’s will most likely give that top-line center spot back to
Chris Kelly, and stick Khokhlachev, Caron, or Lindblad down on the third line with Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson.
On a minor league note, the Providence Bruins signed defenseman
Ian White to a pro tryout yesterday. He skated in their 4-1 win over Hartford, too, finishing the night without a point (those damn AHL boxscores don’t come ice time figures, unfortunately). It’ll be interesting to see if the 30-year-old White, a veteran of 503 NHL games from 2005 to 2013 with five different organizations, can work his way into an AHL deal, and perhaps even an NHL deal with the injury-depleted B’s.
The Habs have made a couple of trades over the last two weeks, bulking up their blue line with the acquisition of
Sergei Gonchar from Dallas (in exchange for Travis Moen) and
Bryan Allen from Anaheim in return for Rene Bourque. The 40-year-old Gonchar was brought in to address Montreal’s power play woes, and in the five games since acquiring him, the Habs are a solid 4-for-17 on the man advantage. Allen, a 6-foot-5 defender that called Anaheim home from 2012 ‘til two days ago, is a slower, veteran presence brought to beef up the Habs’ backend and will make his Montreal debut tonight.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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