First round, 2011. Game 7, overtime. Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens.
On a pinch by Adam McQuaid to keep the puck in the attacking zone, the Bruins found an open Nathan Horton walking the blue-line. In his seventh career playoff goal, No. 18 in black-and-gold fired one up and beat Montreal’s Carey Price, sending the Habs home and the B’s into round two. The series win proved to be a true jumpstart for the 2010-11 B’s squad, who would go on to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 39 years less than two months later.
The Canadiens threw everything they could at the B’s over the course of a seven-game war.
The rivalry was at an all-time high.
Three years later, and with the stakes raised this time around, the Habs are back for more.
In what’ll be the 34th chapter of playoff hockey between the Bruins and Canadiens -- two of the NHL’s Original Six franchises -- the winner moves on to the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s halfway to every one of the remaining eight teams’ goal: Lord Stanley’s Cup. Hockey’s Holy Grail. You don’t need to remind these teams of what’s on the line this time of year. You don’t need to generate any hate by way of a pregame montage or juicy quote either. 90 years of hate? It’s there. It never left, actually.
“I hated Boston when I was in Montreal and now I hate Montreal because I’m in Boston,… B’s coach Claude Julien, a former Canadiens coach, said earlier this week.
These are two teams that are bonded through a pure and legitimate disdain for one another. Folks in Boston look at the Habs as a team full of divers, whiners, and with a fanbase as soft as some of their players. In Montreal, the B’s and their fans are looked upon as thuggish brutes that would rather win a hockey fight than win a hockey game. They’re stereotypes, I know (and in most cases, untrue in 2014), but you’re trying to undo about a century’s worth of thinking here.
Above all else, there seems to be a simple philosophical difference in how hockey should be played when it comes to these cities.
It’s a difference that’s given us an unforgettable history of pictures such as a bloody Sugar Jim Henry and Rocket Richard sharing a handshake , a bewildered Don Cherry raising his arms to the Montreal Forum crowd, Kyle McLaren taking Richard Zednik’s head off, and Lucic pounding Komisarek.
And there’s no doubt that 2014’s series will come its share share of images.
“It’s obviously another difficult one,… Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said of the club’s second round matchup with Montreal. “We had — we were mediocre against them during the year, but they’re a team that has given us trouble historically, so it will be a challenge. That way — much is said about their size and their speed and allegedly, that’s what gives us problems. I think that’s part of it. I think it’s just sometimes, you just don’t have success against [a team] sometimes.…
Montreal took three of four from Boston in 2013-14, and have won six of eight games against the B’s since Michel Therrien took over behind the Montreal bench (once again) last season. The Canadiens have won 24 of the previous 33 series against the Bruins, but haven’t beat the Bruins in a playoff series since 2008’s seven-game first round battle, with the B’s sweeping them in 2009 and beating them in the first round in 2011, as previously mentioned.
If you’re the Bruins, you just have to love the balance you had from your forward core in round one.
In the Bruins’ five-game romp of the Detroit Red Wings, Boston had goals scored by seven different forwards, while just two forwards (the ultra-snakebitten Brad Marchand and fourth line center Gregory Campbell) finished the series without a point. That’s deep. But that’s not to say that the Bruins are without a bit of unexpected silence on their end, either. Perennial playoff hero, top line center David Krejci, has just two points and 10 shots in this year’s postseason.
That’s an obvious change from Krejci’s usual stellar playoff play -- he began the 2014 playoffs with 73 points in 81 career Stanley Cup Playoff games -- but the B’s know that No. 46 won’t sweat his lack of production so long as everything else is working out for his line/game/team.
“He still wants to produce but at the same time he’s smart enough to realize that it’s about the result of your team that counts,… Julien said of Krejci. “So I think that’s basically the only difference there that you’re seeing in David. He still expects himself to produce and wants to be one of those guys, but he certainly doesn’t lose sleep over it if he’s still doing a decent job and the team’s winning.
Centering Jarome Iginla (2-2-4 totals in five games) and Milan Lucic (3-1-4 totals in five games) should give the Bruins’ alternate captain plenty of looks to rack up some points.
And like they were in the first round, the B’s will once again rely on the Patrice Bergeron line with Marchand and Reilly Smith on the wings to shut down the Habs’ top six forward core, and most likely Montreal’s Pacioretty-Desharnais-Vanek line. That’ll create another opportunity for the third line of Justin Florek (in for the still injured Chris Kelly), Loui Eriksson, and Carl Soderberg as the trio to feast on third defensive pairings.
The biggest news for Boston’s forward depth though undoubtedly comes with the potential return of Danny Paille (undisclosed) for Game 1. Missing the entire first round with an injury sustained in the 81st game of the season, the 30-year-old Paille has been practicing with Campbell and Shawn Thornton on the beloved Merlot line this week, and sounds like a go. But if he can’t go due to a setback of some sort, you can expect more Jordan Caron, a pleasant and admittedly unexpected surprise in round one, to skate on the fourth line’s left wing.
Boston’s X-Factor: There’s going to be a target on Marchand’s back. No way around it, really. The Bruins’ 5-foot-9 agitator is going to be picked on by Montreal’s fellow nuisances, and if No. 63 takes the bait, the B’s could end up shorthanded more than they’d like to. That’s something that just about everybody in the Boston organization is cognizant of as they head into round two.
“I get asked about Brad a lot, and I mean, he pushes the envelope. But that’s how he plays, and there are times he does stuff that you just think, ‘Oh, Brad, you don’t have to do that.’ But I know him, I understand how he plays, I’ve seen players like that over the years, and they have to play on the edge,… Chiarelli said of Marchand. “And Montreal has a lot of those — maybe two of those. I’m not saying we only have one also, but Brad’s the one you’re asking me about, so they’re valuable players to the team and we have to manage them. I like Brad, Claude likes Brad, and he’s a very good player.…
On the flipside, and closer to what Chiarelli alluded to there, if Marchand can get into Montreal’s head, then oh man, look out. This is still a player with 16 goals and 34 points in 59 career playoff games -- though he has zero in the first five games of 2014 -- and one with 12 points in 20 career games against the Habs. If he can work his wheels around the Montreal net and get under the skin of a defender like he did to Detroit’s Brendan Smith, the chances will undoubtedly come.
Up front, Montreal’s attack is headlined by the Bruin Killer himself, Thomas Vanek. Traded from Buffalo to Long Island to Montreal in an undeniable up-and-down year, the Austrian winger will take to Garden ice on Thursday as the one winger in this league that can just strike fear into 17,565 Bostonians with one single rush up ice. In 55 career games against the Bruins, Vanek has scored 30 goals and added 32 assists, and has scored 32 goals and 65 points if you count his three career playoff games against the club (bringing his games played total up to 58, by the way). He’s destroyed this club throughout his career. No other way to put it, really.
His linemate, Max Pacioretty, with eight goals and 15 points in 22 career games against Boston and recorded 39 goals in 73 contests this season, hasn’t done too bad himself either.
But if there’s one thing that sticks out beyond the home run hitters up top for the Habs, it’s Montreal’s rather annoying (you know a better word?) assets throughout the rest of their forward core.
A second line winger tandem of Brendan Gallagher and Brandon Prust has the chance to give the B’s defenders fits along the wall and in the corners, while a third line of an awakened Rene Bourque, captain Brian Gionta, and Lars Eller can burn you if you’re selling ‘em short. That’s not even mentioning a fourth line featuring legendary playoff hero Danny Briere -- 51 goals and 111 points in 112 games -- at center.
Montreal’s X-Factor: Yeah, easy pick-- It’s Vanek. When it comes down to it, Vanek is a player that Montreal acquired for this exact reason. He’s donning the ‘CH’ so that they can eliminate the Bruins in a playoff series. Period. I mean, it’s obvious, especially when you realize the NHL’s new playoff format basically guaranteed a showdown with Boston one way or another, the 30-year-old winger will be relied upon to get the better of his head-to-head with Zdeno Chara. Recording two goals and three points in three games against the Bruins during the 2010 playoffs, Vanek comes into this series a goal and three points in four playoff games this year, and Montreal will hope for even more production from No. 20 if they can get him away from the towering B’s captain at home.
You know what you’re gonna get from Boston’s Zdeno Chara. The game’s top shutdown defender, the 6-foot-9 defender will have yet another tall task of shutting down the opponent’s top lines and power play unit, something he proved more than capable of last round. With Dougie Hamilton -- or Johnny Boychuk if it’s the final moments of a one-goal game -- the 37-year-old captain will look to lead the Bruins to their third Conference Final in four years.
On the second pairing, Boychuk will team up with Matt Bartkowski, while the third pairing will consist of polar opposite defenders Kevan Miller and the 5-foot-9 Torey Krug.
If there’s one thing you could hang your hat on when it came to the B’s team defense in round one, it was their ability to limit Detroit to outside looks and really just keep them out of the middle. I mean, even Krug, regarded as the B’s worst own-zone defender (no disrespect), was knocking guys around. That’s just an unbelievable sign for the Bruins defense as a whole when you really think about it.
Boston’s X-Factor: This is a series where the Bruins will certainly have to rely heavily on Boychuk to provide that shutdown presence on the second defensive pairing. With Chara expected to have his hands full with Pacioretty/Vanek, it will be on Boychuk to provide stops against some of Montreal’s secondary scoring threats like Gallagher, Plekanec, and Gionta.
Much like their forward core, Montreal’s defensive blend features a balance of offensive skill and stay at home know-how. The obvious top pairing of P.K. Subban and Josh Gorges is a perfect blend of this. The same can be said for the club’s second unit of Alexei Emelin and Andrei Markov, and to a much lesser degree, the third pairing featuring the undersized duo of Francis Bouillon and Mike Weaver.
Montreal’s X-Factor: Booed with each touch of the puck, Subban will have yet another chance to make Boston hate him with each minute logged out there. An ultra-talented superstar on the point, Subban has a tendency to, well, fall down rather easily when he knows that he’s under Boston’s skin, and tends to later strike where it hurts the most -- on the scoreboard. The 24-year-old has a heated rivalry with just about every Bruin, and comes into this series with five goals and 21 points in 30 career playoff contests. Like it or not, he knows how to play this time of year.
I remember standing outside Halftime Pizza outside the Garden in 2008 and making small-talk with a Canadiens fan waiting in line with me. He was raving about Carey Price and what an amazing goaltender he was. How he’d be the next Patrick Roy, made Cristobal Huet expendable. You lived in ‘08, you know the drill. Admittedly sick of the Price lovefest, I said, “Yeah, it’ll be really awesome when Tuukka Rask is up with the B’s, too. Great head to heads.…
And to this day, I’ll never forget the look on that guy’s face and his response when I said that. “Rask? Yeah, if he ever makes it up to the National Hockey League. He doesn’t have the same skill-set as Price.… If Rask ever makes it! (If Rask ever makes it!) Obviously, it was 2008 and Rask was still a young goaltender adjusting to the North American game, but man, was that silly.
But finally, like six years later, we’re getting that head-to-head in a series. (You hear that, bozo whose name I never got for now extremely obvious reasons? He made it. Rask made it to the NHL. I was right, you were wrong. I should’ve slapped that piece of pepperoni out of your hand for being so dumb, but wasting Halftime Pizza is a crime punishable by death in this state. Only kidding. I think.)
Obviously, if there’s one matchup that doesn’t favor the B’s, it’d seemingly be this one. Despite his playoff dominance, the 27-year-old Rask has just three wins and a .908 save percentage in 16 career starts against the Canadiens, though all of the games have been played in the regular season. But in a year where Rask won just one of four appearances against Montreal, he still finished with a .932 save percentage against the Habs, telling us that he really wasn’t the problem this year.
Still, those are some heinous career figures.
The good news? Rask’s in the midst of a postseason run where he’s allowed just six goals on 152 shots, giving him a .961 save percentage through five games. That’s straight up disgusting.
When asked if he’s concerned with his goaltending, Julien responded, “Not really. Why?…
Montreal will counter Rask with their own masked hero, Price. Though he went a perfect 4-for-4 in the first round, the 26-year-old Price has a mild .904 save percentage in the playoffs this year, and 13-17 record and 2.82 goals against average in his NHL playoff career. Working in his favor, however, is a career record featuring 17 wins and a .919 save percentage in 29 contests against the Black-and-Gold.
Prediction: I have almost no confidence in this pick, really. This is Boston-Montreal and honestly, all bets are off when it comes to that. But given the way the Habs have played against Boston since Therrien returned to Montreal, I think that this will be a series that really tests Boston’s patience. I think the Bruins will ultimately take a 3-2 series edge, lose a Game 6 in Montreal (like you’d expect anything different?), and then head back to Boston, where they’ll take the series in 7.