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Story remains same in first Bruins-Habs game of '16-17

October 24, 2016, 1:08 AM ET [62 Comments]
Ty Anderson
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Milan Lucic, who showed Montreal how to mime your ill will towards those that bother you, has moved on to his second team since leaving Boston in 2015. Defenseman P.K. Subban, a player that found a way to drive an entire city absolutely crazy any time he touched the puck at TD Garden, now calls Nashville home. NHL tough guy Shawn Thornton is squirtin’ water from the benches in Florida these days. And forward Dale Weise will have to find a Pittsburgh Penguins goal celebration to mock now that he’s with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Many of the faces and many of the names from the rivalry are, for better or worse, gone. But the end result between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens remained the same in the first of four head-to-heads between the two near-century long foes in Boston on Saturday night.

The Canadiens, led by quick response goals on Anton Khudobin, downed the Bruins by a 4-2 final.

“I don’t know, it’s a fun place to play, I think everyone gets excited to come to this building,” Habs forward Brendan Gallagher, who scored a goal in the win, said of their success in Boston’s building. “It’s always enjoyable when the fans are on you and it makes for a good atmosphere.”

With the victory, the Canadiens extended their road win streak over the Bruins to a staggering nine games in a row. Boston’s last win against the Canadiens coming all the way back on Jan. 12, 2012.

Remember that game? No? It was so long ago that Tim Thomas was the winning goaltender. Oh, and Michael Cammalleri, whose famous last words as a Hab were saying that the Canadiens, who were straight-up terrible then, “played like losers” before he was traded to the Calgary Flames mid-game.

“It’s always hard, you take nothing for granted,” Gallagher said of their run in the Hub. “We’ve been fortunate to be able to have some success here, I think we all enjoy it, but you know you take nothing for granted. Doesn’t mean the next time it’s going to go that way so continue to play hard.”

Mired in an 0-7-2 run against the Canadiens, Saturday’s defeat brought about more of the same for the Bruins, who struggled (as always) to find goals against Carey Price, who had an easy night with just 21 shots against in spite of six power-play opportunities for the Black and Gold.

“We lost this game tonight because we didn’t play well enough,” Julien of his team said after Saturday’s loss. “We made mistakes that were too costly, and when you give up four goals to Montreal, and you have Price at the other end, it’s pretty hard to beat that team. So we needed to be better. I think overall, in a lot of those areas, we shot ourselves in the foot with some real poor mistakes, and we can’t afford to do that against the Montreal Canadiens.”

When Boston brought themselves within one goal of the Habs in the third period, a shorthanded breakaway goal from Paul Byron extended the Habs lead back out to two just 1:58 later. When the Bruins made it a one-goal game yet again, it was Torrey Mitchell that scored 4:38 later.

“It’s just tough,” Bruins defenseman Torey Krug, burned on the Byron breakaway goal, said. “We expect bigger things out of ourselves and we got to make sure that we learn from this and move on.”

The Bruins, who will likely get ace goaltender Tuukka Rask (general soreness) back in practice on Monday morning after he missed a Friday practice and both the morning skate and game on Saturday, will move on with a Tuesday night showdown with the Minnesota Wild.

But they will have to wait ‘til Nov. 8 for their next shot at the Habs, and ‘til Feb. 12, 2017 for their next shot at the Canadiens on Garden ice. A full five years since their last home win against the club.

Though it certainly feels even longer.

Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can also be read in the New England Hockey Journal magazine. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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