Six years ago, we had eight regular season meetings between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. A few years later, that number dropped down from eight to six. And now, with realignment and a focus on playing at least one game in every building around the National Hockey League going into effect this season, the Habs and Bruins had just four battles. And for as great as they were, with last night’s game in Boston feeling more like a playoff game than any of the 37 games played at TD Garden this year before Monday's battle, it just doesn’t feel like enough.
Factor the sudden unfamiliarity in with a highly physical game headlined by hits, a heavyweight bout between Kevan Miller and the Habs’ Travis Moen, a perceived failure to “answer the bell… (numerous times), postgame chicken-talk, and genuine dislike for one another, it’s definitely not enough.
The fans need more. The players need more. Anybody and everybody needs a seven-game playoff series between the Canadiens and Bruins to happen sometime this spring.
“You know, they’re just one of those teams that you want to hit and after 100 years they’re good at it – a lot of practice,… B’s winger Brad Marchand said of Montreal’s undying ability to goad Boston into penalties. “So we have to be more disciplined than that and be better next game.…
And in last night’s season series finale, the Habs tricked the B’s time and time again.
Alexei Emelin drew a roughing on Zdeno Chara. Just a few minutes later, Miller was whistled for a crosscheck. Marchand for a high stick on P.K. Subban. Center Carl Soderberg took a goaltender interference penalty, Jarome Iginla was whistled for a slash, and Johnny Boychuk found himself goaded into a penalty by, who else, Subban.
“The Marchand penalty was frustration because he got tripped on the faceoff before — it wasn’t called. Those are things that are gonna happen in a game and you can’t retaliate by taking a bad penalty. Boychuk’s penalty was a bad one,… B’s coach Claude Julien noted after the loss, one that put an end to the club’s 12-game winning streak. “We have to be better disciplined against them.…
There’s obvious frustration in the Boston room when it comes to handling games against Montreal, especially when they seem to ‘get away’ with stuff that the Black-and-Gold aren’t fond of, and there’s even more frustration from that same room when they find themselves constantly tricked into it.
“I’ve been here for a long time and it’s almost been the same question for the last seven years, so I don’t have a real answer for you,… a frustrated Lucic told reporters when asked about the club’s lack of discipline against a Montreal team that without Brandon Prust and George Parros in the lineup, isn’t going to waste time in a clear mismatch in the physical game. That, obviously, annoys the absolute hell out of the Bruins. As evident by Lucic’s postgame thoughts on Montreal’s Emelin, a player he’s developed a history with ala Mike Komisarek, after a first period hipcheck that sent an angry Lucic head over heels and on the ice.
“Well I mean, whether it’s fair, legal or whatever you want to call it, I mean if he wasn’t scared he’d stand up and hit me and not go after my knees,… Lucic said of the hit. “It just shows how big of a chicken he is that he needs to go down like that to take me down, so it shows what kind of player he is, and on my end you’ve got to keep your guard up at all times.…
In the other room, the Habs offered a completely different perspective of the Emelin hit.
“We got some power plays there and we were able to frustrate them towards the end of the second, they started to show some frustration and we knew we were doing some things right,… Montreal captain Brian Gionta noted of the play of his defenders, Subban and Emelin.
But in Boston, that’s not how those players are viewed.
What Emelin did is fine, and no, he’s not going to fight because he has a metal plate in his face. I still think that what he did to Lucic was nothing more than a well executed hipcheck that, for once in the brief history between these two, saw Emelin get the better of No. 17 in black and gold. But if there’s one player that really seems to draw the ire of the entire Boston lineup, it’s Subban. And he did it once again last night. He drew a call on Marchand, and then got Boychuk to take an undisciplined penalty after playing the role of ragdoll after punching Boychuk in the head just moments prior.
“I don’t know, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the refs,… Marchand said when asked if he ever expects Subban to ‘not get away with one’ against the Bruins. “But I hope so.…
There’s no love loss there. And to a certain extent, it’s hard to disagree. When it comes to the talent of No. 76, it’s there and it’s undeniable. He’s an unbelievable hockey player. But it’s the nonsense like last night that makes him easy to dislike if you’re a physical player on a physical team. Marchand’s penalty was an obvious one, but on the Boychuk penalty, it was a play that started with Subban giving some cheap jabs to the back of Boychuk’s head with Boychuk down on his knees. When Boychuk got up, ready to give some back, Subban threw his hands up, acted like a child, and then threw a slight shoulder back into Boychuk before reverting back to a ragdoll when Boychuk finally had enough.
But Subban’s tricks are nothing new. Or at least they shouldn’t be by this point. “Simple — you don’t let it happen,… said Julien when pressed about how the club can stop finding themselves goaded into penalties by Subban and company. “It happened a little bit tonight, but I can tell you, like I said before, we can sweep a team in the regular season and we’re gonna get to the playoffs and play them, and I’m not going to say it’s going to be easy — same thing. Just because they won tonight in a shootout doesn’t mean we’re going to go into the playoffs and have the same kind of situation here.
“If we happen to meet them in the playoffs, and that’s an if, then we’ll deal with it, but you can be sure that that’s not going to happen.…
That’s ultimately what this is all about for the B’s. In the postseason, they’ll (seemingly) be able to get away with more of the physical elements of their game, and exact the best form of revenge after dropping three of four frustrating games to the Habs this year and bounce them in the postseason.
In fact, if you talk to any Bruin in the room, that’s sort of the subtle undertone you picked up after last night’s game went final. “I think we outplayed them tonight by far and it is definitely disappointing to see it end in a shootout like that and have our streak ended, I don’t think we deserved that outcome,… noted Marchand, adding, “After we stayed out of the box I think we played much better hockey and we had a lot of opportunities, some really good ones that their goalie made good saves on. It’s an emotional game any time we play them. They know that and they poke at us a bit and try to get us to take penalties and push them back and it worked a little bit.…
And while the current point situation in the Atlantic Division makes a first round matchup seem unlikely, last night’s energetic game undoubtedly served as the ultimate teaser for what could be in the second round if both of these clubs can move on.
That’s enough to get your blood pumping.