The Boston Bruins have some built-in excuses at their disposal, if they’d like.
Yeah, the Bruins had to sit around for what felt like an eternity through yet another over-the-top, elaborate pregame ceremony at the Bell Centre. Seriously, we’re about a year away from the Habs just straight-up lowering Rocket Richard’s skeleton down from the rafters in an effort to ‘up’ their opening from the year before. (Can you imagine the pregame ceremony when this team wins another Cup? Bring a sleeping bag, ‘cause it’ll be a three-day long event.) And sure, the Bruins skated a 65-minute game in Detroit the night before, and were competing in their sixth game in the last nine days. They were also skating against a Montreal team playing in front of their rabid home crowd for the first time this year. You could even use the ‘They’re still trying to figure out their lines’ shtick if you really wanna go for the reach.
Or, we could talk about the truth-- these Bruins just are not equipped to hang with the Habs.
Not for a full sixty minutes, anyways. Especially not in the Canadiens’ building. You see, the Habs are one of those teams that pounce on your mistakes, and for whatever reason, the Bruins sure love to make a ton of those in their end when skating in front of those 21,000-plus lunatics. It’s typically uncharacteristic of the Bruins to be such an utter disaster in their own zone -- and I mean complete, total, five-man disaster -- but there’s just about that ‘CH’ that makes them crumble (defensively or emotionally) with the slightest bit of Habs heat.
The end result? Another frustrating loss to their arch rival, this one by a 6-4 final. With the loss, the Bruins fell to 1-5-2 against Montreal since Michel Therrien started his latest tenure as the Canadiens’ coach, and have won just four of their last 15 games against the Canadiens if you include playoff contests.
But again, this one’s about as frustrating as they come for a Black and Gold squad that’s managed just two wins in the first six games of the season and took the loss despite scoring a season-high four goals.
The Bruins opened up the night’s scoring by taking advantage of a Carey Price delay of game penalty, with Zdeno Chara tipping a David Krejci point blast home, giving the Bruins a much needed 1-0 edge in Montreal’s building. But the Habs would respond 150 seconds later, with David Desharnais bursting through the middle and catching Chara and Adam McQuaid flat footed, and ending the sequence with a sliding McQuaid putting the puck in his own net. Brutal bounce.
Montreal jumped out to their first lead of the night early in the second behind Brendan Gallagher’s strike, but the Bruins would respond less than a minute later behind another monstrous effort from their third line (we should honestly consider calling this trio the first line sometime soon). It began with Loui Eriksson swooping in and dishing the puck back to Chris Kelly. The 33-year-old Kelly rips the shot, and big Swede centerman Carl Soderberg’s there to bat the puck not once, but twice. 2-2.
The Black and Gold’s ability to make life hell in front of Price continued just three minutes later when Eriksson redirected a Torey Krug blast off his body and past Price. 3-2, and the Bruins were firing.
...For a little bit.
Montreal stormed back with Jiri Sekac’s first NHL goal (a cool moment with his parents in the crowd for the first time) late in the middle frame, while P.A. Parenteau was left all alone in the high slot a mere minute and 25 seconds later to give the Canadiens a 4-3 lead. Melting down like that is inexcusable and borderline impossible, but you could honestly call it just another chapter in the ‘What the hell is this team doing?’ book someone will eventually write about the Bruins’ play at the Bell Centre.
In no world should Krejci abandon the middle like that for a bodycheck that late in the period, and if he does, there’s simply gotta be better communication with his wingers (or defensemen for that matter). The second period collapse was only made complete by a tripping penalty against Brad Marchand on the ensuing faceoff, too. In a brilliant two-minute display of narcolepsy, the Bruins were in deep. Seven minutes into the third, they decided to dig that hole deeper when Gallagher scored his second of the night.
That strike took Tuukka Rask out of the game after surrendering five goals on just 23 shots.
But the Bruins found life seven minutes later, as Simon Gagne scored his first NHL goal since Apr. 23, 2013. And like that, the comeback was on with just 5:49 to play in the third.
...For a little bit.
With 1:20 to go, and with the Habs trying to weather the B’s storm, Milan Lucic decided to finish his check on a turning Alexei Emelin along the walls at the redline. In most cases, this hit happens 20 times a game without an incident. But Lucic has a reputation that he’s earned. The handshake line fiasco was real, and the referees would be crazy to ignore the history between Lucic and Emelin. Even if Emelin put himself in a bad spot with the turn, Lucic’s forceful drive -- finishing a check or not -- made that an easy call.
And not shortly after Lucic’s hotheaded, childish, lewd, I’m-out-of-adjectives-that-describe-it gestures to a Montreal crowd from the box, the game was iced with Parenteau’s empty-net dagger.
You know, it’s bad enough that the Bruins don’t really have a bonafide top-six right winger, but through six games, can we really say they have two top six left wingers? In their sixth game of the year, the duo of Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand combined for 16 minutes in penalties. Their combined season totals read as follows, too-- Zero goals, three assists, and 36 minutes in the box. Lucic alone has two 10-minute misconducts. You understand their frustration with their personal play, but there has to be a better way for these talented players to release their frustration. I mean, one of these guys is a former 30-goal scorer (a rarity in the Claude Julien system) while the other is just a couple of seasons removed from a 27-goal year.
With the uncertainty on the opposite wing, the Bruins need more from these two. It’s as simple as that.
And at a certain point, the Bruins need to figure out what they want to do with their second defensive pairing. I’m not sure there’s a more erratic pairing on the roster than the current second pairing featuring Dennis Seidenberg and the 6-foot-5 Adam McQuaid, and it’s starting to show. These guys have been getting absolutely hammered in their own end, they struggle mightily to get the puck up and out of harm’s way, and I’m really not sure if the answer is on this roster or on the farm for that matter.
It’s clear that the coaching staff does not trust Matt Bartkowski in that role (why even keep him around over somebody like Johnny Boychuk then?) and that a Krug or a Kevan Miller is not somebody you could put your faith in to skate in that role on a reliable, full-time basis. You understand that both Seidenberg and McQuaid missed significant time last season, but this pairing is one great mess right now.
So, there you have it. This is the Bruins team that got ousted by the Habs in seven games last year. This game was overblown across the board, no doubt, but you still wanted to know-- are things different? Is this a team that could compete and maybe even beat Montreal in a seven-game series this time around? Right now, you have to lean towards a heavy no. Montreal’s still faster than the Bruins. They still capitalize on your mistakes. They still have Carey Price. This is the same as last year. The Habs are still in Boston’s head.
Big time.
Up next
The Bruins head to Buffalo for a meeting with the Sabres. If there’s one team that can give the Bruins the chance to wake up as a four-line unit, it’s the woeful Sabres. If not, good lord, ready the riot gear.