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 inching closer to President's Cup; Visit Winnipeg tonight

The race for the President's Cup has taken a turn to the west, as the Anaheim Ducks have overtaken the St. Louis Blues in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference, and sit just two points behind the Boston Bruins for the best record in the league.

The Bruins' lead over the Ducks in the race to secure home ice throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs by earning the best record in the National Hockey League is razor thin, as is the tie breaker of best ROW (Regulation and Overtime Wins), both teams tied at 50.

Anaheim has two games remaining and the Bruins three which means that Boston has every advantage on the way to the best record with the two point lead and a game in hand, and though they can't clinch that Cup with a win tonight in Winnipeg, they can make it nearly impossible for the Ducks to catch them.

What does that mean to Bruins' coach Claude Julien?  Not much, unless he has a fantastic poker face or a genuinely perverse sense of humor, as he is expected to continue rotating his veterans as healthy scratches to get them a bit of extended rest before the post-season begins next week.

Top line centerman David Krejci is expected to play on Thursday night after being given a night off on Tuesday, missing the Bruins' 4-3 shootout loss in Minnesota - and taking his place in the press box will be second-line centerman Patrice Bergeron, joining Chris Kelly and defenseman Kevan Miller.

"It is a good luxury, but at the same time, you never want to get out of the lineup," Miller sighed. "Guys always want to play. You can tell someone’s sitting up there, they’re not happy about it, but it is good going into the playoffs to have guys be 100 percent rested."

Ryan Spooner, who was an emergency call-up from AHL Providence due to Kelly's back spasms, will be joining the team in Winnipeg and will most likely skate in Bergeron's spot.  Jarome Iginla is also expected to be in the lineup after missing the past two games.

Luckily, Julien has a lineup that caters to giving players a night off every now and then, as they are widely considered to have the best third and fourth lines in the National Hockey League, as well as a wealth of developing talent at the AHL level such as Spooner...

...but the seventh year bench boss isn't taking it easy on the players in practice, as he held a spirited skate on Wednesday.

"You’ve got to have a practice like we did today. It was based on being sharp and some intensity and it doesn’t have to be long; it just has to be good," Julien told beat writers after the practice. "Guys have to understand that these last few games do mean something. It means staying sharp."

"You don't want to start the Playoffs on a negative note, because you're just kind of coasting through your last few games." he explained.

Boston

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Loui Eriksson

Brad Marchand - Ryan Spooner - Reilly Smith

Daniel Paille - Carl Soderberg - Jarome Iginla

Jordan Caron - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensemen

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Andrej Meszaros

In Net

Tuukka Rask

Winnipeg

Forwards

Evander Kane - Bryan Little - Michael Frolik

Eric Tangradi - Olli Jokinen - Blake Wheeler

Eric O'Dell - Jim Slater - Matt Halischuk

Carl Klingberg - Patrice Cormier - Anthony Peluso

Defensemen

Tobias Enstrom - Paul Postma

Mark Stuart - Jacob Trouba

Adam Pardy - Zach Redmond

In Net

Michael Hutchinson