Bruins

Feeling good with your Montreal Canadiens four points clear of those not-so-big, not-very-bad-anymore Boston Bruins?

Want to feel even better?

May I suggest a short stroll down memory lane.

A year ago, this team was in disarray.

Kovalev vs. Koivu for leadership of the room. Off-ice scandals. On-ice garbage, most nights.

Guy Carbonneau, who was in the Hockey Night in Canada booth last night, had been fired on the day the Canadiens returned from a road trip o which they'd lost two of three games.

The team won Bob Gainey's first game behind the bench, then lost the next five beforte scraping out enough wins to ride four losses into the playoffs.

We remember what happened in the postseason: El Sweepo at the paws of the dastardly Bruins.

That was then.

And while there are still a dozen regular-season games to play and several rivals alive for playoff spots, I think we can agree this now is much more gratifying than that then.

Five of six against the Bs this season

Six of eight possible points on the road trip.

Three straight at home, five straight overall.

The Canadiens are officially hot.

So, buyers, sellers or innocent bystanders?

The consensus prediction from radio guys and the Antichambre crew is a quiet Trading Day for the Canadiens and their fans.

Nothing we saw in Boston changes that scenario ... except a win makes a stand-pat trade day easier to accept.

All credit to the Canadiens for a very solid effort ... against a very bad hockey team.

What's happened to the Bruins?

No one can score, the D is pathetic and Tim Thomas is signed to watch Tuukka Rask for four years.

But enough about them.

Boston sucks. The Bruins have not won in the TD Banknorth Centre this year. They're about to go on the road for seven games.

The Canadiens are in seventh place, and the team we saw last night  â€“ trailing after two periods, then scoring four unanswered – looked like a playoff club.

Four unanswered goals in the third period.

Three by the third and fourth lines.

Carey Price made saves when he had to.

Outstanding team win.

Starting the second half with an onside kick.

That's just the kind of coaching decision Jacques Martin would make.

No barber poles.

More to the point, no finishers.

Mike Cammalleri and Benoit Pouliot were sorely missed.

Still in sixth place, but no breathing room.

The Bruins broke a 10-game losing streak and moved within three points, with three games in hand.

And a fourth shutout on home ice despite 36 shots on Tuukka Rask

What are the Canadiens going to do with Jaro Halak?

Forty-five saves through regulation and OT.

Another three in the shootout.

The Bratislava Beetroot is singlehandedly keeping the Canadiens in playoff contention.

He's not elegant.

His technique won't be taught at goaltender school any time soon.

But Jaro stops pucks.

And wins games.

Without him, the Canadiens would be ...

Well, it just doesn't bear thinking about.

Two HUGE points

Plekanec: Save

Krejci: Leg save!

Gomez: Save

Ryder: Save

Gionta: Backhand shelf!

Savard: Save!

Steve Kerley ffers this scouting report on tonight's opponent:

Stop me if you have heard this story before.

An NHL team surprises everyone by having a brilliant year that leads to the Eastern Conference championship.   Everything goes right for them as the team excels at all facets of the game.

Listed as heavy favourites, they eventually run out of magic and falter in the playoffs.

Undaunted, they make a few minor tweaks during the summer as they get ready to take it to the next level during the following season.

Sadly, everything that had gone right has now turned sour.  Major injuries, a lack of scoring and underachieving players leads to a season of fumbling and stumbling.  Things are so bad that the team may not even make the playoffs after having finished 1st the year before.

Viggo Mortensen might have been the happiest person in the Bell Centre.

The movie star loves the Canadiens – and he's used to Hollywood endings.

After an emotional two-hour ceremony to mark the 100th birtrhday of hockey's greatest franchise, the current edition of the Montreal Canadiens beat the bad guys and got the girl in the last reel.

This was not the team Toronto shut out 3-0 at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.

It was not the team humiliated 6-2 in Buffalo a mere 24 hours earlier.

With a recent history of lottery draft pick performances and the weight of 100 years of glorious hockey history on their shoulders, the Canadiens got their second century off to a winning start.

Humongous W

And the players salute the fans at centre ice

Let's call it Revenge of the First-Rounders.

Carey Price, chosen fifth overall in 2005, made 42 saves in regulation and two more in the shootout to win the 50th game of his career.

For the first time since the Oct. 3 game in Buffalo, he looked like the blue-chip goaltender the Canadiens thought they were drafting.

Andrei Kostitsyn was picked 10th overall in 2003, and we've spent six years reciting the grim litany of players chosen after him: Jeff Carter, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards, Zach Parise ...

Kostitsyn has one goal this season. He's on the fourth line and played 7:32  against Toronto on Saturday.

Against the Bruins, AK46 played 14:44, including 1:44 on the power play (but no ice time in OT). His speed created the goal Glen Metropolit scored in the first period.

Is he Parise?

No. But in a big win, Kostitsyn skated hard, backchecked, made (mostly) good decisions and – for one night at least – did not look like a wasted draft pick.

It's a start.

42 saves before the shootout, then two more

Wheeler: Glove save

Cammalleri: Wrister! Goal!

Bergeron: Wide

Gomez: Save

Recchi: SAVE!!!

Steve Kerley, aka 24 Cups, scouts tonight's opponent:

The Boston Bruins’ fate over the past two years has been very similar to that of the Montreal Canadiens.  A Cinderella story whereby they lead the Eastern Conference during the regular season to only to face heartbreak in the playoffs.  Once the carriage turns into a pumpkin, reality sets in and the fairytale has ended.  There’s a solid base to this Beantown team, but right now, they are facing a reality check that sees them dealing with a variety of challenges.

The Montreal Canadiens (5-5-0) are currently sitting in the 9th spot in the Eastern Conference. In the Northeast Division the Habs are third, behind a strong Buffalo squad and the competitive Senators.

We all know where the Leafs are in the standings.

The Habs have picked up their play but their stats still show a low-level team. Montreal scores an average of 2.60 goals/game but allows 3.00. Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak have a combined 0.892 SP which isn’t the worst in the league, but is far from the top. The boys have been short-handed 37 times (20th-NHL), which is much better than the league leading Hurricanes (58), but don’t have the best penalty-kill (78.4%). The powerplay is currently striking at 17.1%, but has definitely been improving over the last couple of games (Marc-Andre Bergeron is on pace for 50 PP goals).

My pre-season ironman streak – five games in as many nights – comes to an end when the Bruins visit the Bell Centre tonight.

I'd be there if I thought I could live-blog through my tears on Patrice Brisebois Official Retirement Night.

But it will be just too emotional.

No, seriously, it's an upper-body injury: my heart dictates that I attend the birthday dinner of one of my best friends this evening.

Unlike Max Pacioretty, who has a shoulder separation courtesy of a Brooks Orpik hit Monday night and could be out two weeks, I'll be back in action on Saturday. Live blogging will resume  for the hugely important pre-season Seventh Game against the Buffalo Sabres.

Feel free to Comment on tonight's action.

A previous commitment (OK, ballroom dancing lessons ... she insists ... I don't want to talk about it) will prevent the ol' EEEEE-mailer from watching Boston-Carolina live tonight.

I've got the PVR teed up to catch up on the game eventually, but early Comments will have to come from the great Habs Inside/Out community.

Are we rootin' for the 'Canes?

Will Lucic go after Walker?

Let's get ready to .... uh, rhumba?

The official post-mortem will come later today, when the players clean out their lockers at the Brossard training complex and Bob Gainey offers his season wrap-up.

But why wait to conduct an autopsy?

Let's poke around the steaming viscera of this seasonus horribilis while the body is still warm.

From arcosenate

Steven Wright for the Bob Gainey bio-pic?

Nah, I'm thinking Kenneth Branagh.

What is the true definition of Most Valuable Player?

If it means the player whose absence results in the most measurable deterioration of his team's performance, they can begin engraving the name on the Hart Trophy:

Andrei Markov.

Mikhail Grabovski effectively ended his former team's season 17 days ago in Toronto.

When Grabovski's late game check resulted in Markov's knee injury, the Montreal Canadiens lost a defenceman who averaged 24:37 per game. Markov killed penalties. He quarterbacked the power play. He was deployed against the opponents' most dangerous forward line.

At the time of his injury, Markov led the Canadiens in scoring. He had more assists than any other D-man in the league.

Markov elevated the game of his teammates – especially his defence partner. Mike Komisarek is not the same player without him – as was the case two years ago, when yielding his spot beside Markov led to Craig Rivet's disenchantment and eventual departure from Montreal.

The Canadiens have played seven games since Markov was injured.

They've lost every one of them.

"Everything's possible. But it's a long road and a long way ahead of us."

– Saku Koivu

One of my favourite scenes in Good Will Hunting is the therapy breakthrough:

The Matt Damon title character  talks about his painful childhood, how he would deliberately draw the wrath of his abusive and alcoholic father, taking the beatings to spare his younger siblings.

As tears course down Will's face, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) hugs him tightly and repeats the soothing mantra:

"It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault ..."

Good Will Hunting is set in Boston, where I hope Bob Gainey worked the room last night:

Carey Price, it's not your fault.

Alex Kovalev, it's not your fault.

Saku Koivu, it's not your fault.

Mike Komisarek, it's not your fault.

No one let the team down.

On this night and, I fear, in this series, your Montreal Canadiens  just aren't good enough to beat the Boston Bruins.

It is writen in the stars: Not this year ...

Ten great minutes and then the roof fell in.

Back to the Bell Centre ... and maybe salvaging some semblance of respect. 

CH as in CHaracter.

Give your Montreal Canadiens credit.

Down 2-0 to the number one seed in the opener of a series few think they can win, the Canadiens battled back.

They never quit.

They were never intimidated by the Bruins.

They displayed grit, pride, intensity.

And they lost their fifth game in a row.

Can they snap the L streak tomorrow night?

Canadiens will have to play even better than they did in the opener, because I fear Boston will play a lot better.

The Bruins got a scare last night. Until Josh Gorges' ill-advised penalty, it was anyone's hockey game. Doubt had crept into the minds of the mighty Bs, and the TD Banknorth Garden was a mausoleum with dropped Rs.

Then it all turned to crap. And in the cold light of a lovely spring dawn in Montreal, knee-jerk pessimists such as myself are asking whether that was as close as the Canadiens are going to come.

That's all it took.

With Josh Gorges off for an utterly pointless and useless cross-check, Zdeno Chara wired one that deflated the Canadiens, who had been brilliant to that point.

Phil Kessel added an empty-netter, his second goal of the game.

Bottom line: A gritty effort went for naught. 

 

Heat up the tar and prepare the feathers.

I'm about to go against prevailing sentiment among Habs Inside/Out posters ... and they're not going to like it.

Unless Andrei Markov makes a miraculous recovery from whatever ails him, your Montreal Canadiens have no chance of winning this series.

Even with Markov, it's a long shot.

The Bruins are that good.

The Canadiens – on the evidence of their regular season play –  are that bad.

But having incurred the wrath of bleu-blanc-rouge true believers, I reserve the right to change my mind and clamber aboard the bandwagon if the Canadiens manage to steal a game in Boston.

OK, Carey Price as Ken Dryden.

But as my guru was asking on the radio this afternoon, who's Jean Béliveau?

Steve Kerley, who's offered analyses of all the Canadiens' opponents this season, looks at the Bruins.

Put your black armband back in the drawer – for now.

There will be at least two playoff games at the Bell Centre.

April will not be the cruellest month in Montreal.

It didn't look good for a while. When Mark Recchi tipped in Zdeno Chara's power-play  point blast  to make it 3-1 early in the second period, I thought the Canadiens ought to start thinking about tee times.

Wrong again.

Gooned all over the ice as Dave Jackson and Paul Devorski decided to referee a 1972 NHL hockey game, your Montreal Canadiens showed courage, character and conviction against those c-words in black jerseys.

And there's a really good chance hostilities will resume at the TD Banknorth Garden next week.

The Canadiens are in eighth place. Our heroes would move into seventh by beating Pittsburgh at the Bell Centre Saturday night, but the Rangers can reclaim the spot by winning in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon.

Whatever.

The centennial season, thanks be to whichever deity you worship, will not end tomorrow.