Canadiens eliminate Bruins; face Rangers in Eastern Conference Finals

The tension was so thick in TD Garden that the folks at home could probably feel it seeping from their television speakers.

After all, in each of the first six games of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series between the hometown Boston Bruins and their arch-nemesis from north of the border, the team that has scored first has been the victor - and just over two minutes in, the Montreal Canadiens had the lead.

Almost immediately afterward and amidst nervous rumblings from the capacity crowd, Bruins' forward Brad Marchand was thrown into the clinks for interfering with Habs' goalie Carey Price, giving Montreal a power play four short minutes later...

...down by a goal and shorthanded was pretty much the nightmare scenario for the Bruins to start the winner-take-all Game 7, and the Canadiens could smell the blood in the water, delivering as much punishment to the Bruins as they could muster without ending up in the box themselves, wanting to seize the opportunity to take total control of the game before the bear woke up.

Which happened just before the end of the first period, but the way that Canadiens' goalie Carey Price was playing, it didn't make any difference.

Max Pacioretty scored the game winner midway through the second period, joining Dale Weise and Daniel Brière with goals that the Bruins made look too easy, the Canadiens beating Boston at TD Garden by a score of 3-1 and advancing to the meet the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.

Price was fantastic, stopping all but one of Boston's 30 shots - a Jarome Iginla power play goal the lone blemish - while Bruins' goaltender Tuukka Rask faced only 18 Canadiens' offerings, though it seemed like thrice as many, but allowed three to find the net as he was again victimized by sloppy defensive play in front of him and a relentless Montreal forecheck.

The Weise goal was as easy as they come - a textbook backdoor job set up by Daniel Brière, who drew the Bruins' box toward him to the left circle while Weise floated in behind the defenders, then it was just a matter of a simple pass across the low slot to the uncovered Canadien, who directed the point blank offering into the open net on Rask's glove side...

...Pacioretty's gamer playing out almost identically, this time Patrice Bergeron whiffing on a clearing attempt and with the Bruins anticipating a rush the other way vacating the zone, David Desharnais had only Torey Krug to beat, but instead slid a pass just out of reach of the sprawling defenseman and right into Pacioretty's wheelhouse for the one-timer and a two goal lead.

The Bruins got that one back with two minutes left in the middle frame on Iginla's redirect of a Krug drive, but untimely penalties and the swarming Canadiens defense ensured that Boston would get no closer, and Brière potted an insurance dagger with just under three minutes left in regulation, taking a Brendan Gallagher feed from the right wing and splitting Zdeno Chara and Matt Bartkowski and somehow slipping the puck between Rask and the goal post.

This one is going to sting for a while, the Bruins missing on two straight chances to eliminate their most hated rivals, outworked and outscored by a total of seven goals to one in losing the final two games of the series.

Boston Bruins on Paper - Habs' Subban "can't wait" to take the TD Garden crowd out of Game 7

Shawn Thornton describes it as "Awesome", but it's unclear how many Boston Bruins' fans feel the same way about the impending Game 7 with the Montreal Canadiens scheduled for Wednesday night, particularly in light of the collective egg the Bruins laid in Game 6.

On a general scale, things just don't get better for a sports fan than the words "Game Seven", and absolutely nothing beats a series finale in the National Hockey League -  and you don't have to traipse through a time portal any further back than last season's Eastern Conference quarterfinals match between the Bruins and Maple Leafs to understand why...

Physical play should rule Game 7 on Wednesday night

...but while fans are emotionally invested in the outcome of each game, the players have to keep their emotions in check, but to listen to Thornton tell it, one can just feel the excitement oozing from every word.

“You can let it tighten you up or you can really feed off the fact that this is what you trained your whole life for, these situations,” Thornton gushed “That’s kinda the way I’ve approached it. This is awesome. This is the best time of year.”

That about sums it up for everyone - and Thornton, the Bruins' self-appointed P. K. Subban agitator and team spokesman, makes it sound like Christmas, the first day of spring and the first bite of a real Philly cheesesteak all rolled into one.

“It’s Game 7,” Torey Krug said of he and his teammates finding the urgency missing from their play in Game 6. “If you don’t have it, there’s something wrong with you.” 

But, how does one find that level of intensity for a Game 7 after melting like a s'more early in Game 6?

“I think it’s kind of how we played in Game 5,” defenseman Dougie Hamilton reminisced. “I thought we were playing pretty desperate in that game, and it isn’t about changing our game, it’s about focusing on the details and working hard and focusing on the things we’re good at. It’s about having a good start again, obviously, and not having to try to come back and to try to play with the lead.”

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Matt Fraser - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Kevan Miller

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

One person that feels the same way as Thornton is Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban, but for more sinister reasons.

"It's going to be great," Subban said, though not exactly going in the same direction as Thornton, the already despised face of the Habs raising the bar of hate even higher. "I can't wait for the crowd, the noise, the energy in the building. I can't wait to take that all away from them."

Come to think of it, that may be why Thornton is so looking forward to Wednesday night - the chance to send Subban and his cohorts on vacation.  Violently.

Subban has been - unquestionably - the best player in this series, but in games four and five was held in check by the Bruins, who took the risky avenue of playing him tighter at the point -and punking him at every opportunity - when previously they had given him plenty of space to operate, not wanting him to use his superior skating and excellent puck handling skills to get behind their defense...

...and part of the desperate measures that the Bruins need to take in Game 7 is to get back to being physical with Subban and try to take him out of the offense - something that Canadiens' coach Michel Therrien doesn't think can happen, given the gravity of the moment.

“P.K. Subban’s been phenomenal since the playoffs started, even at the end of the season,” Therrien said. “He’s a gamer. He’s a guy that will bring his team to a new level, another level when the games count. He’s been a leader on the ice.” 

 Canadiens' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallgher 

Michael Bournival -Tomas Plekanec - Tomas Vanek

Rene Bourque - Lars Eller -Brian Gionta

Travis Moen - Danny Briere - Dale Weise

Defensive pairings

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Nathan Beaulieu - Mike Weaver

Goaltenders

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

It goes without saying that the crowd at TD Garden will be wild, and while nothing the Bruins' P.R. staff can pull out of their top hat of technology is going to top the incredible psyche job that the Canadiens' pulled off during their pre-game spectacle (you have to admit, that kid lighting the ice "on fire" is pretty wicked) - just unfurling the Bruins' banner and Rene Rancourt signing his guts out and giving his traditional salute to the military and his "Stump Pump" fist pump does the trick...

...which doesn't impress Subban at all, his comments regarding the crowd at the Bruins' game telling one all they need to know about how he plans to deal with the hostile crowd.

"I don't give them that credit," Subban said on Tuesday. "I go and play the game. I play to win, I don't care who's there, I don't care if there's nobody in the stands. I'm going there to win. It's irrelevant to me."

"I hope that it's a hostile environment, it makes it all better."

After saying something like that, Subban will become even more of a target than he normally is in Boston. Will he be able to back up those words? Will he wilt in the face of the hostile Bruins crowd? Will Thornton soak him down with an industrial-sized water bottle this time?

The only way to shut down the crowd in Boston is to jump out to a big lead, and sometimes even that doesn't work - again, reference back to the Maple Leafs' series last season - but leave it to the level, shiny head of Boston coach Claude Julien to reduce the game down to basic human fundamentals, to break down the brand of urgency and desperation that is needed to win a Game 7 against their most hated rival.

“I think desperation is going out there and giving it the best shot you can,” Julien quipped, calmly. “The last thing you want is regrets. And if you hold back the things you know you can do, and you don’t leave it all out on the ice, then you have regrets. So, that’s what desperation is all about, leaving it all out on the ice and you can walk away knowing you gave it your best shot.”

With a better focus and a few gratuitous bounces, there shouldn't be any regrets - only a trip to the Conference finals where the New York Rangers await the winner of this match...

Comedy of errors doom Boston Bruins as Habs force Game 7

Boston Bruins' coach Claude Julien wanted his team to come out and match the desperation-fueled intensity that he expected the Montreal Canadiens to fire out of the gates with in Monday night's Game 6 as they tried to stave off elimination.

What he got instead was an ugly 4-0 loss and a winner-take-all Game 7 in Boston on Wednesday night.

Up three games to two and with a chance to clinch their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals series, the Bruins laid an egg, practically handing the Canadiens scoring chances as the Habs scored on two embarrassing defensive faux pas, one on a power play and one into an empty net to ice the game.

Habs' David Desharnais (51) makes a crazy save on a Jarome Iginla offering

The Bruins?  On Monday night they couldn't have scored at a bar full of cougars.

Especially the way that the Canadiens were contesting everything - laying out to block shots, winning on the dashers, causing chaos with their swarming neutral zone defense and tight zone box protecting the slot - the Montreal defensemen escorting the forwards to the wings and intercepting nearly every centering pass that actually made it through the lumber.

Despite all of that, the Bruins still made their own chances, but continued their post-season long habit of drawing iron and missing wide open nets, while the Canadiens connected on their opportunities, which were the kind served on a silver platter by the sloppy Bruins' defense.

The carnage started almost immediately, the Canadiens' pressure down low on Bruins' defenseman Torey Krug forcing a bounce pass to rookie blue liner Kevan Miller, who misplayed the funky carom and the puck squirted into the slot where Habs forward Lars Eller gathered it in and went backhand on Rask, who abandoned the crease to try and poke check the puck away from Eller.

That goal just 2:11 into the game turned out to be the eventual game winner, as Montreal goalie Carey Price stopped all 26 shots he faced to make the lead stand for the remaining 57:49 of regulation.

But the Bruins weren't finished making mistakes, and the Canadiens were far from finished scoring.

Montreal blew the game wide open with two goals during a short, intense 2:15 span of the late second period, rookie blue liner Nathan Beaulieu got hold of a deflected Loui Eriksson point drive and led Max Pacioretty with a tumbling stretch pass after he had released and gotten behind the defensive pairing of Zdeno Chara and Dougie Hamilton...

...Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask still had a chance to make a play on the puck, but perhaps thought better of it after the earlier Eller goal and got caught in no man's land when Pacioretty split the defense and reached the puck before Chara, planting the puck behind Rask for an easy 2-0 lead.

Tomas Vanek then made it a three goal lead, cleaning up a loose puck that emerged from a scrum in front of the Bruins' net with Gregory Campbell in the penalty box, poking it in the open net before Rask could square his shoulders, and the game was essentially over.

The only spark of energy that came from the Bruins was an eruption of frustration with 24 seconds remaining in the game - no gloves were dropped but that didn't prevent Chara and Jarome Iginla from shoving their gloved fists in Mike Weaver's and Brian Gionta's respective grills, perhaps trying to send a message in advance of Game 7 in Boston...

...but if that's all they have to hold on to, it's going to have to be enough as the desperation is now on both teams - and if the Bruins can't get up for a winner-take-all Game 7 against their oldest and most bitter rivals - if they can't find their effort, if they can't find the defensive intensity and close out the series, they have only to look back at Monday night's comedy of errors to realize where it went wrong.

Because when you gift wrap scoring chances the way the Bruins did, the present inside is called momentum - and going into an elimination game looming, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Boston Bruins' on Paper - Bruins looking to eliminate Habs in Montreal on Monday night

All things being equal, the Boston Bruins are a better team than the Montreal Canadiens.

Sure, the Bruins have a three games to two lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Canadiens - with Game 6 on tap for Monday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal - but the President's Trophy winners haven't made it easy on themselves.

Julien's quiet confidence has Bruins on brink of eliminating the Habs

Eighteen times the Bruins have given the Canadiens the man advantage in five games, yielding seven power play goals in the process.  The good news for Bruins' fans is that, just as in the quarterfinals series against the Detroit Red Wings, the Canadiens are having trouble finding the dirty ice at even strength, scoring a total of six goals with all things equal...

...one of those being defenseman P.K. Subban's breakway goal coming out of the penalty box uncovered, meaning that only five of the Habs' 13 tallies have been straight up.

By comparison, 13 of Boston's 15 goals in this series have come five-on-five - finding twine on just two of their twelve power play opportunities.

Any better outcome on either the penalty kill or the power play, and this series would already be over.

Montreal has gone two games since scoring an even strength goal against Boston, an impressive stretch for the Bruins that has seen them completely shut the door on the Canadiens' offense, save a power play goal and an extra-attacker tally in Game 5 - in fact, since the Habs scored on a Dale Weise drive midway through the second period of Game 3, Montreal hasn't gotten one past Bruins' goalie Tuukka Rask at even strength.

"We're playing against a very good team; if you look at the stats it's one of the best teams at 5-on-5,"  said top line forward David Desharnais "It's tough, but we have to find a way. If we get some power plays we need to take advantage of that and create some momentum to score 5-on-5."

That said, there seems to be one sure-fire way to beat the Canadiens on Monday night and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row: Keep everything equal.

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Matt Fraser - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Kevan Miller

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

Surprisingly - perhaps stupidly - Desharnais says that he feels like the series momentum has started to swing into the favor of the Habs, even going so far as to call out Bruins' captain Zdeno Chara in an effort to give hope to his teammates and their fan base...

...and perhaps taking his turn to "poke the bear", as it were, trying to cause the Bruins' to lose focus - though his words have probably done nothing except make the feared defenseman's resolve a little stronger.

"He's an excellent defenseman; it's definitely not easy to play against him," Desharnais said, managing to sound magnanimous before delivering the punch line. "I think [Saturday] we found a way to get him tired a bit more and to pressure him."

"When you do that, he's just another defenseman."

Mother of God, what have you done?

Perhaps Desharnais is feeling a bit of detachment from the game after such a long season and a tough series against the Bruins, and if he didn't awaken the bear inside of each of the Bruins with his previous statement, he certainly did when trying to justify it.

"The longer the series goes the more we feel they're slowing down a little bit," he said. "It's tough on them, we're pressuring them. It's getting tougher and tougher, but we're getting our chances."

 Canadiens' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallgher 

Michael Bournival -Tomas Plekanec - Tomas Vanek

Rene Bourque - Lars Eller -Brian Gionta

Travis Moen - Danny Briere - Dale Weise

Defensive pairings

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Douglas Murray - Mike Weaver

Goaltenders

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

For his part, Montreal coach Michel Therrien seems to be out of ammo to motivate his troops - perhaps part of the reason that Desharnais is now trying to dislodge both of his skates from his mouth.  Therrien called out his top line before Game 5 on Saturday, saying that he felt they hadn't adjusted to intensity level that is required for the playoffs - but on Sunday afternoon he sounded resigned to just let things unfold as they should.

"Leadership comes from everyone, it doesn't come from one player," Therrien said when given the opportunity to single out his top line again. "I ask any player that puts on the uniform, every player that shows up to a game, they have to show leadership. Whether it's your first season or you've been in the League for 18 years, in my eyes you need to act like a leader."

Therrien's top line isn't the only line struggling in this series, as the Bruins "KIL" line of David Krejci, Jarome Iginla and Milan Lucic have had a rough go of it since the post-season began, as both the Red Wings and Canadiens have seemed to focus on trying to be physical with them, but it appears that the line is emerging from their collective funk as Lucic is hitting everything that moves and Iginla scored a slump-busting game winner in Game 4.

"I noticed that he was a whole different animal, and he was putting fear into their D," said defenseman Matt Bartkowski of Lucic "that's what he does."

"They started doing the right things," Bruins' coach Claude Julien said in response to questions regarding his top line. "We’ve seen them enough all year that when they play a straight line game and they play within their strength which is being big, strong and managing the puck well and hanging on to it in the offensive zone, that is when they become good."

"Although it wasn’t a five-on-five goal, it was nice to see Iggy score [Saturday] again and that line, you can see, is starting to turn the corner."

Lost in all of the hype and hoopla surrounding this rivalry is the calmness and confident demeanor of Julien - where the most controversial statement he's made to the media is that if his Bruins' play their game, they'll be fine.

Quiet arrogance?  Perhaps in the Canadiens' world it is seen as such, but in reality all Julien is doing is telling the truth - and if the Bruins do indeed play their game on Monday night, chances are very good that Game 6 will signal the end of Montreal's season.

"You know, I think we played a pretty complete game (in Game 5 on Saturday)," Bartkowski continued. "And I said that before the game, if we play a full 60 minutes and we don't really give them much - if we do that, we're fine."

Boston Bruins on Paper - Home ice is nice, Bruins seek to keep it against Habs

As far as the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens are concerned, there may as well have been an old fashioned barn raising at the Bell Centre Thursday night - bright red structures at each end of the ice, the broad side facing the playing surface.

Because neither team could find the range or the angle to find twine, and even when a puck managed to make it past either goaltender, the result was the all-too-familiar metallic ping accompanied by a black blur and a collective groan from the thousands gathered to watch as the closest either team could get to a score in regulation was a glancing blow of the cross bar...

The Bruins mob rookie Matt Fraser after his game winner in OT

...that is, until a kid named Matt Fraser - who was sitting in a mexican restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island on Wednesday afternoon when the Bruins called and told him to pack his stuff and get to Montreal - found a puck spinning on the ice in the crease to the stick side Canadien's goalie Carey Price and poked it into the goal 1:15 into overtime to give the Bruins a 1-0 victory.

Leave it to the new guy to be the only one capable of hitting the broad side of a barn - and even then, it was like sneaking it through the back door.

"I can’t put it into words," said the unlikely hero, Fraser. "The excitement - again, I’m still shaking with excitement, and again, it’s every kid’s dream to score an overtime goal like that and to contribute."

And, yes.  That's cool, but right here, right now, that goal evened this best-of-seven series at two games apiece and has given the Bruins back their hard-earned home ice advantage - and it's time to put that advantage to good use.

That said, who will step up for the Bruins who, along with Montreal, have scored 11 goals in four game - a number that's a little deceiving in that each team has been shut out once in the series, meaning that they each have scored an average of nearly four goals per game when they do manage to score.

Many feel that it is time for the "KIL" line to step up, and perhaps they will now that Julien has his lines intact.  In the first three games, he had them mixed up with Paille on the third line and Jordan Caron on the checking line - but in Game 4, Paille was back on the Merlot Line and Caron was back in the press box in favor of Fraser.

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Matt Fraser - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Andrej Meszaros - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Kevan Miller

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

"It's obviously a lot better to be 2-2 than down 3-1." Boston goalie Tuukka Rask said on Friday. "So, it is what it is, but as a team we know we can be a lot better on the ice, and in order to get more wins, we have to play better and stay focused on doing our jobs."

For his part, Bruins' coach Claude Julien is free and loose, aware that this is essentially the same team that earned the President's Trophy during the regular season - and that all they need to do is to play their brand of hockey and not worry about what the Canadiens are busy doing...

...which consists of coach Michel Therrien calling out his own top line of Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Bendan Gallagher for not holding the torch and producing as he thinks they should - just as Boston's David Krejci, Jarome Iginla and Milan Lucic have struggled offensively.

Reality is, the KIL line is just missing the net, while Montreal's top line is being shut down by the combination of Zdeno Chara and Dougie Hamilton on the Bruins' top defensive pairing.

 Canadiens' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallgher 

Michael Bournival -Tomas Plekanec - Tomas Vanek

Rene Bourque - Lars Eller -Brian Gionta

Travis Moen - Danny Briere - Dale Weise

Defensive pairings

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Douglas Murray - Mike Weaver

Goaltenders

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

“For me, I’m just trying to shut down their top lines and play physical on them and limit them." quipped Hamilton of shutting down the Habs top line. "We’ve just got to keep trying to do that. I think all our D have done a good job of that, just trying to stay aware and limit our mistakes.”

Of course, Therrien doesn't quite see it that way.

"If you look at the playoffs from the start, there are certain players that are having some trouble contributing offensively." said the outspoken Therrien. "These types of players need to adjust to the intensity of the playoffs. They are being checked very tightly, we're aware of it on both sides."

"But there's an intensity to the beginning of the season, an intensity to the middle of the season and there's an intensity to the end of the regular season." Therrien continued. "But when you get to the playoffs, it's another type of intensity. Those types of players need to adapt to that challenge."

Pacioretty chose to do a bit of fence-sitting in his reply to both Therrien's rant and Hamilton's assessment.

“It’s obvious that they want to pair certain guys against us. It’s not an excuse; it’s a good challenge." Pacioretty said, adding "We haven’t risen to that challenge yet. Myself personally, I’ve got to do a better job of being able to overcome that adversity.”

Whoever does the best job of overcoming that adversity is going to have a 3-2 lead in this series.

Boston Bruins on Paper: Thornton wants Bruins to "Just go"...

It's not quite time to break out the "Rocky" analogies - none of that "eye of the tiger" crap, no running up steps and bouncing around like a kangaroo on diet pills and no begging Mickey to cut open the swelling around his eye so he can see.

And not just because 80's anthem music sucks, nor because marsupials have no use for weight loss supplements, nor because Mickey passed away decades ago - The Boston Bruins don't need any of that, only to be relentless like Rocky - taking the Montreal Canadiens' best shot, and keep going after them.

The Bruins hope to see this scene early and often in Game 4

It's brought them back in all three games of their best-of-seven series with the hated Habs, but it could be that the best strategy for the Bruins is to throw some haymakers of their own to take control of Game 4 in Montreal on Thursday night, and not get themselves in a position where they have to come from behind to begin with.

Because instead of the Big Bad Bruins throwing their bulk around and forcing the smaller, quicker Canadiens to counter their heavy play, the Habs have been forcing the Bruins to chase them around like Mickey made Rocky chase that chicken around the pen in Rocky 2 - the challenger looking as awkward and uncomfortable as the Bruins look in playing that brand of hockey...

...though the Black and Gold made a speed move on their day off, sending Justin Florek back to Providence and recalling the cat quick Matt Fraser, presumably to bring a more quick-twitch presence to the third line, allowing Julien to integrate Daniel Paille back onto the Merlot Line, which will balance out the lineup and make the lines as whole as they can be without Chris Kelly on the third line.

"That line's been together, so there's no doubt that when you take one of those guys out of there, it's not the same thing,"Julien said of the integrity of his checking line, but self-designated team spokesman Shawn Thornton thinks it's all in taking control.

"I think we've just got to get back to playing our way," Thornton quipped. "Just play. Just go out and play. Just like in boxing, just got to let your hands go, that type of thing. Just 'go.'"

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Matt Fraser - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Andrej Meszaros - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Kevan Miller

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

It's interesting to note that Julien juggled his lines at Thursday's morning skate, then had some fun at the beat writers' expense with a jocularity that they probably are not accustomed to, given the gravity of the circumstance.

"Oh, I think it just gives you guys something to write about so you don’t get bored," Julien said, tongue firmly planted in cheek. "And tonight, I can decide whether I want to stick with those or put my lines back to what I want."


Julien never offered a reason why most of his players were skating in unfamiliar spots in practice, but did offer that he felt like having a little fun while keeping the players fresh and focused.

"I think you’re overthinking, honestly," Julien responded to reporter's inquiries "We have fun with things sometimes, and that’s all we’re doing right now. We’re okay. Just having fun with things and like I said, if you guys want to write about that stuff, that's fine but we’re okay in there, we’re just focusing on our game."

As for the Habs, they seem to be all business.

“Playoffs is always a challenge,” Canadiens' coach Michel Therrien said. “I like the commitment from everyone on our team. For me, it’s the commitment from everyone. It’s the challenge, and since Day 1, we got that business attitude, and it all starts from there — with the attitude and the commitment.”

The two head coaches couldn't have been any more different in their approach to Game 3 - what with Therrien talking smack and Julien yukking it up with reporters - and if their respective moods before Game 4 are any indications, not much will change on Thursday night.

They always bring it,” Habs' blue liner Mike Weaver said on Wednesday. “That’s Boston. That’s why they’ve won a few Cups there, and they’re a hard-nosed team. They built their team around strength and finishing checks and skill, and I think for us, we just got to worry about our game and focus on the little things we do and what we’ve been working on.”

 Canadiens' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallgher 

Michael Bournival -Tomas Plekanec - Tomas Vanek

Rene Bourque - Lars Eller -Brian Gionta

Travis Moen - Danny Briere - Dale Weise

Defensive pairings

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Douglas Murray - Mike Weaver

Goaltenders

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

Weaver was paired with big-bodied Douglas Murray on Tuesday night and the impact of having the physical trade deadline pick up on the third defensive pairing was evident on every shift as the Canadiens looked to counter the Bruins' physicality - so it appears that Therrien will roll with pretty much the same skaters on Thursday night.

But for Boston, it's really not about who's on the ice for Montreal, it's about their own performance - because they know they are the more talented team.

"You know, we're a group that's confident but we also have guys that right now are a little frustrated at themselves, and they know they have to be better, and they're going to be better tomorrow - and that's the confidence we have in our group," Julien said of the mindset of his players.

"That's the way we've been in the past and you've got to rely on those guys to come up tomorrow and play the kind of game that they can." Julien continued. "It's a 2-1 series, it's not the end of the world here. We've just got to battle back - there's no reason to panic. We haven't in the past, and we're not about to panic now."

From the way Julien conducted his gameday skate, it appears he believes what he says.

Boston Bruins on Paper - Fundamental failures at root of Bruins' woes

In one of the best psyche jobs ever on a sheet of ice, the public relations and technical crews of the Montreal Canadiens' organization left nothing to the imagination in their pre-game festivities, with pagentry galore and a holographic explosions as the crescendo whipping the 21,000 plus at Bell Centre in downtown Montreal into a frenzy.

The the first Habs goal sent the crowd into the stratosphere, the second sent them into orbit and the third buried the Boston Bruins - this time their comeback from a multiple goal deficit falling short as they fell to the Canadiens by a score of 4-2 in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series.

An uncovered Tomas Plekanec scores Montreal's first goal

The Canadiens now leads the best-of-seven series two games to one, with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

When the Habs went to their room at the first intermission with a 2-0 lead - leading in every single category that there is - one had to think that the Bruins had them right where they wanted them. 

Even down 3-1 at the end of the second after dominating the period, the feeling remained - and why not?  This is the team that erased two-goal deficits in each of the first two games of the series, both times putting multiple biscuits in the basket in fairly short order.

And they did score twice and had several chances to tack on more, but having to scramble from behind is a bad way to fly, and certainly isn't Bruins' hockey - at least not as far as bench boss Claude Julien is concerned.

"It's the way our team plays, we play until the end," Julien said of his team's typical 60 minute effort, "(but) If we start relying on how we play in the third period, we'll be making a big mistake."

Indeed, particularly when working hard, but not working smart - because to ignore the mental part of the game, the place where the most elementary of the fundamentals exist, is playing losing hockey.

Tuesday night, despite the all-out effort, the Bruins played a losing brand of hockey.

"We just made stupid mistakes which ended up costing us the game, so we have to get rid of those." Boston Goalie Tuukka Rask said after the game. "I don’t think we played bad"

No, the Bruins' didn't play badly but all three of the goals pinned on Rask were imminently avoidable and the mistakes made defied basic defensive fundamentals - something that is ingrained in the structure of this Bruins' team - and just goes to show that even the best teams are not immune to the harrowing trials of cutting corners and losing focus.

A perfect example of cutting corners came on the Canadiens' second goal with five minutes left in the opening period.

Montreal's P.K. Subban was in the penalty box for trying to decapitate Bruins' winger Reilly Smith with an elbow, and with the clock ticking down on a dismal Bruins' power play but the puck at the opposite end of the ice, Rask decided that he didn't need to tap his stick to let his teammates know that Subban was just seconds from freedom.

"That's part of my job, I have to let them know." lamented Rask in hindsight. "But I kind of looked at it and I thought we had everything under control and stuff like that, so I decided not to, and it ends up in our net."

Subban emerged from the sin bin just as teammate Lars Eller took possession of a loose puck after a brief scrum in front of the Canadiens' net - Eller escorting the puck into the neutral zone which drew defenseman Dougie Hamilton and centerman Patrice Bergeron to him and allowing the undetected Subban to slip behind the defense.

Carl Soderberg was the first to realize that Subban was uncovered - besides Rask, of course - but he had no realistic chance at making a play on the streaking defenseman.

The Canadiens also took advantage of the loss of defensive focus on their third goal as well, when forward Dale Weise released from the blue line just as Bruins' defenseman Andrej Meszaros launched a shot at Canadiens' goalie Carey Price - the shot was blocked by garden gnome Mike Weaver and the puck picked up by forward Daniel Briere, who found Weise uncovered behind Mazsaros and Johnny Boychuck.

"Yeah, they were stretching us out, but I don't think that's something we didn't expect," Meszaros said. "Obviously we're watching videos and so we know what to expect from them. We just need to execute better..."

"I think a couple times when we were shooting up from the point, they had one guy taking off and we didn't account for that guy right away." echoed fellow blue liner Kevan Miller, "We just need to do a better job of not letting guys get behind us."

Obviously, the Canadiens know that the Bruins' defensemen shoot from the point a lot, and their game plan of swarming defense in the neutral zone to not allow clean entry into their zone and clogging the slot once Boston establishes themselves in the attacking zone is made easier by Boston's long-range snipers, and if the high man loses track of the forward, it makes those bombs from the point that much more risky.

The Bruins are the more talented team, but the separation between them and the third-seeded Canadiens is not so much that they can let their guard down and cut corners and expect the fact that they won the President's Trophy for the best record in the NHL to win games for them - all that honor afforded them was home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, something that the Canadiens have already taken away from them.

"We’re a very resilient team and you see that, but you can’t play yourself out of the hole every night, as much as we want to," Bruins' self-appointed mouth piece, tough guy Shawn Thornton said after the game. "I think the positive is that it shows the character of this room again, that we don’t give up until the final buzzer."

Being resilient is great, and the never-say-die attitude is grand, but to play Bruins' hockey - taking the lead by force and stepping on their opponent's throats - is preferable to the losing catch-up hockey that they are playing now.

"In the first period we had an off period and it cost us a lot and we had to come back again." said Jarome Iginla, whose defensive miscue in the first period contributed to the first goal. "We can be better. And it's something now, this game is behind us, we'll go over it.  And as the second and third periods went along we started building our game again and we're going to need that."

What they need is to play the brand of hockey that got them here, and that means taking nothing - including the fundamentals - for granted.

Boston Bruins on Paper - War of words escalates in advance of Pivotal Game 3 in Montreal

Momentum is such a fickle thing in hockey - if you don't seize it, it will envelope you and eventually chew you up and spit you out.

That said and true, it's time for the Boston Bruins to bring the hammer down on the Montreal Canadiens.

Game three on Tuesday night should feature more of this...

No, not the "German Hammer" Dennis Seidenberg - though him coming back from torn knee ligaments would be cause for much happy jabbering and celebration amongst the faithful of the Black and Gold - but to bring down the hammer on the Canadiens in Tuesday night's third installment of thier best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals faceoff.

The Montreal Canadiens had the momentum taken from them in Game 1 when the Bruins found their legs with about five minutes left in the second period, blowing a two goal lead before eventually winning in double overtime - and although they ultimately got the result on the scoreboard that they desired, their game disintegrated with every tick of the clock...

...the Bruins shoving them around the ice until an uncharacteristic lapse in judgement gave the Canadiens the man advantage in overtime, and though it seemed to the layman's eye that Montreal had come out and again grasped the momentum in the first two periods of Game 2, nothing could be further from the truth - and when the Bruins' snipers started finding the range on their shots, the Habs were finished...

So going into the Bell Centre in Montreal on Tuesday night, the Bruins really don't have a lot of adjustments to make with their lineup - what they've had on the ice has been downright dominant at winning time - just come out fast, score first, then bury the Canadiens in front of their home fans to seize back the home ice advantage that the Habs took from them in Game 1.

Oh, and try to stay out of the penalty box.

Then come back and do the same thing in Game 4 on Thursday to take away their will - because it goes without saying that the crowd in Montreal is of the rabid-dog variety, and if their Habs get the early lead the Bruins will never hear the end of it.

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Daniel Paille - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Jordan Caron - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Kevan Miller

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

The only noticeable change for either team will be in the defensive pairings, where Boston brings back Matt Bartkowski following a one-game hiatus after having a rough go of it in Game One, while the Canadiens counter with big-bodied but seldom used defenseman Douglas Murray in place of garden gnome Francis Bouillon in an attempt to gain a bit more physicality on the blue line.

Of course, Murray has at least a half a foot and nearly 50 pounds on Bouillon - who will be relegated to the press box as a healthy scratch - and will be paired with Bouillon's fellow gnome Mike Weaver on Montreal's third defensive pairing.

In actuality, Bouillon has been a healthy scratch almost 30 times this season, but not since the Habs picked up Weaver on the trade deadline as the two have formed a pretty dependable third pairing - but it's no secret that the two have not made the Bruins pay along the boards enough to impact their play.

"There's no secret what he brings," Canadiens' captain Brian Gionta said of Murray. "He's a big body who can grind their forwards down low. Great on the penalty kill. He's big for this team."

 Canadiens' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Tomas Vanek

Rene Bourque - Lars Eller - Brian Gionta

Michael Bournival - Tomas Plekanic - Brendan Gallgher

Ryan White - Danny Briere - Dale Weise

Defensive pairings

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Douglas Murray - Mike Weaver

Goaltenders

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

Therrien has tinkered with the lineup and shifted second and third lines, but has also succeeded in shifting the focus away from his team's deficiencies by calling out the Bruins - salvo after salvo fired across enemy lines as a war of words (mostly from Therrien) has erupted - mostly focused on goaltender Carey Price.

On Sunday, Price started the soap opera by claiming that he thought that the three goals that the Bruins scored on him in the third period were "lucky" - and when the Bruins' countered by stating that they have found a weakness in Price's game, words escalated...

...then on Monday, Therrien accused of the Bruins of seeking unfair advantage by barking at the referees - for which Boston coach Claude Julien was assessed a bench minor for unsportsman-like conduct in Game 2...

"I thought they got away with a lot of things, as far as we're concerned," Therrien said. "But they try to influence referees. That's the way they are. That's not going to change. That's the way they like to do their things, but for us we're not paying attention to those things, honestly."

He's not paying attention, but decided to mention it anyway - but came up short when it came to coming to his goaltender's defense when informed of Boston blue liners Torey Krug and Dougie Hamilton's statement that they've been aiming high on everything shot at Price, exposing a weakness in his armor.

Price had already countered the two young defensemen's comments by stating ""I've seen a lot of scouting reports on lots of goalies throughout the League, and that's pretty much the scouting report on everybody, It's a pretty irrelevant comment, I thought."

Price actually did a pretty decent job of not making a mountain out of a molehill - taking into account that Krug and Hamilton are young and not terribly experienced in keeping bulletin board material to themselves - but Therrien wasn't going to skip the opportunity to denounce the Bruins as blowhards.

"Whatever comments they make on us, I'm not a coach that's going to start making comments on the other team," Therrien said.  But since he was already on the subject, he continued. "It's never been my philosophy; I don't like that. They can say whatever they want, that's their choice, but we know what we have to do get success."

So do the Bruins, Michel, and a lot of that is borne in not paying attention to the hype or the war of words.

Oh, and staying out of the penalty box, not giving P. K. Subban so much room to skate around on the power play and shooting high on Price, which the Bruins will continue to do and hope for the best on Tuesday night.

Boston Bruins on Paper - A Habs' fan explains everything...kinda

Carey Price calls it luck.  Dougie Hamilton refers to it as destiny.

Whatever you wish to call it, it is in reality one hell of a Stanley Cup Playoffs series - and the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens have only played two games.

The 34th edition of the Big Bad Bruins and Les Habitants meeting in the post-season for a best-of-seven series has been everything one would expect from bitter rivals, and nothing but the hatred has been held sacred - the hits have been a little harder and the chirping a little louder, both from the players and the fan bases.

Julien loses it on the bench while Therrien waits for the presser

And the chirping coming out of Montreal is more-or-less lament, as instead of the Canadiens bringing a two-games-to-none lead home from Boston, they are level with the Bruins at one game a piece - and you won't hear many Habs' fans blaming anyone but their own hometown heroes.

In both contests thus far in the Eastern Conference Semifinals series, the Canadiens have built two-goal leads, only to see those leads evaporate under heavy pressure from the consistently heavy Bruins - and though Habs' goaltender Carey Price would like everyone to look at it as if the Bruins got some lucky shots by him, the truth is that Price is the lucky one...

...lucky that he didn't get blown out of Game 1 - what with the Bruins' snipers drawing iron on three shots and missing wide open nets three other times, those are six potential scores that would have ended that game in regulation and, coupled with Saturday afternoon's result, would have the Habs down 0-2 and looking for a change between the pipes.

And to hear the Canadiens' fans tell it, they should make the switch to backup goalie Peter Budaj anyway.

Regardless of how one may feel about the Canadiens' team, their fans are a knowledgeable bunch, particularly the big group of them that can be found after the game at the Rock Bottom Grill, a quaint and dirty little pub smack in the middle of the "Little Canada" section of Lewiston, Maine.

With it's French-Canadian heritage, Lewiston is a melting pot of sorts, the elder gentry partial to the Canadiens - their colors flying from poles adding a certain je ne sais quoi to their already vibrantly decorated front yards - while the younger crowd boasts allegiance to the Bruins and favor the powerful darkness of their home colors to give them a sort of unyielding quality.

On this night I was the only Bruins' fan in the place, listening to the incessant whining about Price while trying to make sense of my game notes over a cup of their fantastic coffee before writing my game recap.  I expected a rude greeting from the old boys over their Habs' epic collapse, but found only dejection and harsh words for their starting goaltender.

The language is mostly Acadian french, a dialect that draws it's charm from an abundance of colorful metaphors and is diverse enough to include about two dozen different ways for them to tell you to go do something rude to yourself - and I probably heard all of them in the 20 minutes that I sat at the bar surrounded by beer-soaked Frenchmen.

"Price?  Tas de merde!" one particularly blended gentleman of around 60 quipped as he glanced at my notes, shaking his head sadly. "My Habs, they are finished."

When I reminded him that the series was tied, he chastised me for my ignorance.

"The first game should have been over by the second intermission" he slurred, "Le habs Il est chanceux ce soir! - until the last 10 minutes then they were not so lucky, huh?"  My new-found friend was having trouble with his english, but I got what he was telling me, the Canadiens were overmatched.

I gathered my notes and stood to leave, but Norman (the bartender called him by name and at least three other men turned to look as well) insisted on a cup of coffee and that I accompany him on a short walk to his house - and since I had already missed my deadline, I agreed...

...the walk proving difficult under the circumstances as Norman fell into fits of sobbing and fist shaking as only a Frenchman can do properly, spitting out insults that seemed to be aimed at the hockey gods - stopping briefly to vandalize his neighbor's trash can that had the Canadiens' logo crudely painted on it, then stretching out on a lawnchair in what I assumed was his front yard and drifted off to sleep...

Interestingly enough, Canadiens' coach Michel Therrien appears to agree with my intoxicated friend, as he's taken time away from tinkering with his lines just long enough to fire shots across the bow of the Bruins' battleship, accusing them of dark malfeasance on the ice and with unjust influence from the bench.

"It's always the same thing with Claude" Therrien said when asked about Julien taking a bench minor in Game 2 for chirping a little too loudly at the referees."He's not happy with all the 'crap'".

"They try to influence the referees" Therrien continued. "That's the way they are - that's not going to change.  That's the way they do their things, but we all know what they're trying to do."  He paused for effect, then "I thought they got away with a lot of things."

Julien's response?  "At the end of the day, we've just got to go out there and play our game."

That should tell one everything they need to know about the mindset of the teams coming in to Game 3 in Montreal on Tuesday, and confirms what my drunken french friend was trying to tell me on Saturday evening - because when the coach is in a panic and looking for any excuse he can to cover for his team collapsing in the third period twice in a row, he knows they're in trouble...

Boston Bruins' Gameday: Thornton's tirade inspires epic Bruins comeback; series tied at one

During the third period TV time out in his Boston Bruins' matchup with the Montreal Canadiens and down by a score of 3-1 on Saturday afternoon, Shawn Thornton got up in his teammate's collective face and told them that all it was going to take was a goal every five minutes to tie the game.

They got those two goals faster than ordered, and then some.

Bergeron (37), Marchand and Andrej Mezsaros celebrate a tie game...

Dougie Hamilton started an offensive blitzkrieg that saw the Bruins' erase that two-goal deficit and take the lead in the space of five and a half minutes of the final frame - then added an empty net goal as the Bruins evened their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals series with the hated Habs at one apiece with a resounding 5-3 victory in Game 2 at TD Garden in North Boston.

Hamilton's point drive was followed by a Patrice Bergeron tough angle shot from the right wing to tie the score with just under five minutes to play, and a Reilly Smith snap from the right circle with three and a half minutes remaining gave Boston the lead for good.  Milan Lucic added an empty net insurance goal to drive the point home.

Point being?  This is the second game in a row that the Bruins have erased a two goal deficit in the final period - and that, perhaps even more than the win itself, is the Canadiens' cross to bear as the series shifts to Montreal for Games 3 and 4, scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Bell Centre.

Even before the opening faceoff, Bruins' left wing Brad Marchand and Habs' right wing Brendan Gallagher set the tone for a physical battle, throwing elbows trying to gain position and establish the upper hand right off the bat, and it worked like a charm as Boston's bigger bodies hammered the Canadiens at every opportunity...

...eventually taking a 1-0 lead when Daniel Paille, who played on the third line being centered by Carl Soderberg instead of his usual spot on the Merlot Line, took a pass from the big Swede as the trailed down the slot and beat Montreal netminder Carey Price top shelf for the Bruins' first lead of the series with seven minutes remaining in the first.

The Canadiens came out of the room after the first intermission with an urgency, slipping the deliberate targeting of the heavy Bruins and grasping the momentum, putting Boston's plodding defense to task with their quick-twitch passing and suddenness on goal - Gallagher getting the best of Marchand just a minute into the middle frame, picking his pocket in the neutral zone and carrying the puck back into the attacking zone...

...firing a shot in on Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask, who stopped the blast but couldn't direct the puck out of the crease as the Canadiens crashed the net.  A scrum ensued and Gallagher eventually came out of the pile behind the net and hit defenseman Mike Weaver with a pass into the right circle, and just like that the game was tied at one just over a minute into the second.

Bruins' killer Tomas Vanek accounted for the next two Montreal goals, both Power Play offerings and both tip-ins off of P. K. Subban drives - one in the waning moments of the middle frame and the other six-and-a-half minutes into the third - giving Montreal a 3-1 lead and setting the table for a comeback that will undoubtedly find itself in the annals of rivalry lore.

"We had a two-goal lead. We have to manage the puck better and do smarter things out there, making sure we are being smart with the puck and putting ourselves in a good position," lamented Subban, "Nine minutes left to go in the game, we have to shut it down. Good teams know how to shut things down when they have the lead. We are a good team, we have done it before."

Maybe so, but for the second straight game, the Canadians couldn't do it - and this time, it cost them the game.

Following Thornton's tirade on the bench, Hamilton took a Marchand pass at the blue line, faded to his left and ripped at slapshot that somehow found the net through the forest of players in front of the net that got the TD Garden crowd back into the game - the players seeming to feed off of their energy, and things just snowballed from there.

"Well they poured it on at the end of the game," Price said. "They got pretty lucky, I thought. They were playing desperate at the end of the game and they found a way to put it in the net. We've just got to regroup, realize the situation we're in, we're in a good spot, and move forward."

If luck really had anything to do with things, the Canadiens would be down 2-0 in the series, as the Bruins missed several wide open chances in the first game and the first two periods of Saturday's matinee - but when they started to find the target, the Canadiens were finished.

Bergeron hit a twirling sniper shot from the bin-side dashers to tie the game at 3-3 three minutes after Hamilton's drive, then Smith's laser from the dot on the right circle gave the Bruins the lead minutes after that - then Lucic potted his empty-netter to leave no doubt as the Bruins score four unanswered goals to take Game 2.

In all, the Bruins have scored seven of their eight goals in the series in the third period, while the Canadiens have scored just two of theirs in the final frame and one in overtime, but seem to have issues with the Bruins at even strength as all but three of their seven goals have come with the man advantage.

"Well obviously we've got to find a way to not get into that position, if we can," said Bergeron of falling behind their rivals. "But I think we're a resilient group and we've been there before and we have the confidence that we can actually come back in games. Tonight was a perfect example of that."

"That being said, they outplayed us for more than half the game, so we've got to be better."

Staying out of the penalty box seems to be a perfect way to accomplish that, but as far as the Bruins are concerned, they are never out of a game - and that has to be wearing on the Canadiens as Game 3 looms on Tuesday night.

"We came here wanting to get one win, obviously we would have liked to have two, but we got one." Subban offered, trying to put a positive spin on things. "We have home-ice advantage, we're going back to Montreal, and we'll be ready to play."

He'd better hope they're ready to play for a full 60 minutes, because 50 minutes just isn't cutting it.

Boston Bruins on Paper - Rask shoulders blame for loss to Habs, but hard-luck offense played a role

The Big, Bad Bruins.

The well-deserved moniker conjures images of the schoolyard back in the day, when bullies took what they wanted, enforced their own rules with intimidation and the only way to survive was either to toe the line or run like a bastard...

Bullies aren't know for their speed, as a general rule, but they have long memories and usually live by the axiom that revenge is a dish best served cold - and it is very cold on the TD Garden ice sheet, where on Thursday night, the Bruins bided their time and chased the speedy Montreal Canadiens all over the joint, finally catching them after spotting them a two goal lead and laying a brutal third period beating on them...

...Reilly Smith and Torey Krug scored goals within three minutes of each other early in the third period and Johnny Boychuk tied the game with two minutes left in regulation to send the game to overtime, where the Bruins' dominated play and even managed to kill off a Canadiens' power play that bridged the gap between overtime and double overtime.

But they couldn't do it twice, wasting a fifty-one shot strafing of Montreal goaltender Carey Price when defenseman P.K. Subban nailed a power play drive from the point 4:17 into the second serving of free hockey and dropping a 4-3 decision that had netminder Tuukka Rask seething.

“I was shit tonight,’’ said Rask, not too worried that anyone would blame him for his disgust. “When you suck, you suck."

"We played overall good five-on-five, pretty much dominated" Rask said after getting his daily allotment of colorful metaphors out of the way. "We had a lot of chances, couldn't score.  I gotta be better."

How many chances?  Well, when one considers that Price had to make a play on 51 shots, his defense blocked 30 and the Bruins' just plain missed the goal 17 times - that's 98 times that the Bruins fired at Price, nearly twice as many times as the Canadiens offered at Rask.

No wonder he's pissed off.

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Justin Florek - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara -Johnny Boychuk

Matt Bartkowski - Kevan Miller

Torey Krug - Dougie Hamilton

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

"I didn't mind the way our team played tonight. We had lots of chances, and sure, we fell behind 2-0, but we showed some resiliency and came back." Bench boss Claude Julien said at the post-game presser.   "I thought we carried the play for the most part, and obviously in that first OT period, the only thing is we have to find a way to bury those great opportunities we had. That's probably where there are some regrets there in not burying those chances." 

Missing point-blank chances at yawning nets has been an unfortunate calling card for the Bruins in these playoffs, with Brad Marchand hexed beyond reason in the quarterfinals win over the Red Wings, and now the bug has spread like wildfire on the Bruins' roster - at least in the opener of the Eastern Conference Semifinals with Montreal...

...from loose pucks sitting for so long in the crease that play seemed suspended in time to just plain bad luck, had the Bruins buried just one of their dozens of chances, there would have been no overtime - and though every player and coach from both teams knows it, no one is going to say it loud enough for anyone to hear, but the way the Canadiens' are talking, it's obvious that they saw the same thing that Julien did.

Canadiens' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Tomas Vanek

Brandon Prust - Tomas Plekanic - Brendan Gallagher

Rene Bourque - Lars Eller - Brian Gionta

Travis Moen - Danny Briere - Dale Weise

Defensive pairings

Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban

Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin

Francis Boullion - Mike Weaver

Goaltenders

Carey Price

Peter Budaj

"We’re happy that we won Game 1,” said traditional Bruins' killer Tomas Vanek, “but I don’t think any of us are happy with how we won it. So we just need to all improve by tomorrow, and I think we will.”

And by tomorrow, Vanek means Saturday at TD Garden in North Boston in a 12:30 pm matinee.

Apparently, neither team is under any delusion - and in a series like this, neither can afford to be.  There are no adjustments that need to be made, just drop the puck, skate hard and skate clean - maybe get Tuukka a bar of soap for his mouth - and let the hockey universe unfold as it should

We played like a team that hasn't played in 10 days," said Montreal coach Michel Therrien,  "But the positive side of things is that even if I expect us to be better in the next game, we found a way to win. That's what's important."

That is important - so important, in fact, that the Bruins' need to try it out - because if they head to that loony bin in Montreal down two games to one, the producers of the national postgame show are going to need a three-second delay to account for Tuukka's self-depreciating rants...