The only guarantee to be made, as the Canadiens and Bruins get set for another battle in what's historically been the NHL's most epic war, is that there will be blood.
These teams hate each other. Not just historically. The hate is palpable amongst all their respective players, and that bad blood is going to rise to the surface before boiling over in what should be an incredible series-- if both teams are able to maintain the level they've been playing at post-Olympics.
Since March 1st, the Canadiens boast 17 wins in 25 games (68%), including their four-game sweep of the Lightning, and they're currently riding a five-game winning streak that dates back to the final game of the regular season against the New York Rangers. Over that same period of time, the Bruins have taken 21 wins in 29 games (72%), including a 12-game win streak through March and their dismantling of the Detroit Red Wings in five.
In the four regular season games they played against each other, the Canadiens took three of them, but you might put more stock into how well both teams played down the stretch versus how they played against each other this season.
The last couple of years exclusively featured games between these teams in which the division lead was on the line, though that wasn't the case this season. Two of the decisive victories (4-1 for Montreal, and 4-1 for Boston) this year came when the losing team was way off their game. The teams traded 2-1 wins in the other two games.
On paper, the Bruins hold the edge in nearly every category. They are the more experienced team--with a Stanley Cup win in 2011 and a Finals appearance in 2013. They finished with the NHL's best record; a 117-point season. They were the NHL's best team at five-on-five this season, they were 16 spots ahead of Montreal on the powerplay, and despite Montreal's slight edge on the penalty kill, the Bruins were remarkably better in that category than the Canadiens were in round one of the post-season. Boston has stronger depth up front, they have stronger balance on the blue line, and they are--at worst--even with the Canadiens in nets.
Thirteen of the players that lifted the Cup with Boston in 2011 are still with the organization, though Dennis Seidenberg's been shut down for most of the year after suffering a knee injury that required reconstructive surgery, Adam McQuaid's nursing a quad injury that's kept him out since January, Chris Kelly's been on the sidelines since the playoffs got underway, and Tuukka Rask was a passenger on that fabled run.
Rask had an MVP-type performance bringing the Bruins back to the Finals last year, and 17 of the players that participated in that playoff run remain on this team.
As for the Canadiens, they were an overtime goal away from stopping Boston's Stanley Cup run in the first round in 2011, and they may have come out on the right end of it had Max Pacioretty not been robbed of the opportunity to play in the series. The most dangerous Canadien down the stretch that year got viciously and severely injured by Boston's Zdeno Chara. This event--and the ones that immediately preceded and followed it--stimulated the contemporary rivalry between these teams, and given that there are still ten Habs from the 2011 team (counting Andrei Markov, who played all of seven games--one of them a regular season meeting with the Bruins, and Josh Gorges, who missed the playoffs that season) that skate into this year's series, that experience isn't too far out of focus.
Other Canadiens, like Brendan Gallagher and Alexei Emelin, and other Bruins, like Kevan Miller and Jarome Iginla--new to the contemporary rivalry--have helped embolden the most recent turmoil between both clubs since their last playoff meeting.
2010-11 featured arguably the most charged chapter of a rivalry that spans some 90 years. The Canadiens took four of their six regular season meetings--dominating the first three before things got very ugly in a fight-filled barnburner in Boston, with the Bruins taking an 8-6 decision. The Habs regained control the next time around, up 3-0 when Chara devastated all of Montreal with his near-lethal assault on Pacioretty, and the Canadiens stumbled into Boston with wounded bodies and wobbly confidence for their final meeting; an embarrassing 7-0 loss.
The thought then was that the Canadiens didn't stand a chance against a healthier and superior Bruins team in the playoffs, but they stole the first two games of the series before losing three in a row. They pushed back in game six, to force things to a seventh and deciding game in Boston, to be played the very next day. Subban scored a desperation goal for the Canadiens with 2:57 remaining in the third period of game 7 to get them to overtime. Nathan Horton ended the series 5:43 into the extra frame.
When all was said and done, these teams lined up for handshakes after killing each other all year, and the playoff series ended with each team having scored 17 goals. Combined with the regular season, the Canadiens actually won 7 of 13 games, but the Bruins outscored them by a total of 39-37 thanks to that lopsided victory in April.
The Canadiens came into the series as a clear underdog, and the intangibles almost had them pull off a remarkable upset that year. The storyline isn't all that different this time around. But there are differences.
The Habs come into Boston healthy and rested. Pacioretty popped his playoff cherry to score the series-clinching goal against Tampa, after notching 39 this season--two of which were game-winners against the Bruins. Thomas Vanek--a reputed Bruins killer is on Montreal's side. As good as Carey Price was in that series, he's coming off the best season of his career, having not lost a game in these playoffs; having earned Olympic Gold as Canada's starting netminder to gain valuable confidence and experience under pressure. P.K. Subban's won a Norris Trophy since then. Markov's regained the health that eluded him for the better part of three years, and Gorges is healthy and ready to play this time around. Daniel Briere's playoff prowess is on the Canadiens side, and their depth is going to push some very successful players from round one to the sidelines for part of this series. This Canadiens team is much deeper than the one that pushed the 2011 Cup Champs to the brink of elimination.
It is a battle that the entire hockey world is eager to consume. It gets underway as early as Thursday.