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Boston Bruins - Canadiens Watch

Game 64 Review: Canadiens Defeat Bruins 4-1

March 5th 2010 00:27

Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Tuuka Rask, Mathieu Darche

Darche scores Montreal's third goal

What happened to the Boston Bruins? Last season, they dominated the Eastern Conference thanks to hard work, sheer determination and great coaching. This year, the parts are the same but nothing's working. After winning the Vezina Trophy, Tim Thomas lost the number-one spot to Tuuka Rask while defenseman Zdeno Chara – winner of last season's Norris Trophy - is a mere shadow of himself. The Bruins' collective problems were even more evident against the Montreal Canadiens – another struggling team – on Tuesday.

Despite scoring the first goal of the game – gift-wrapped by Montreal's Carey Price – the Bruins looked slow and tentative, particularly against the Canadiens' grinders who scored three of Montreal's four goals.

With two players returning from injury, some returning from the Olympics and others who were simply resting during the Olympic break, the Habs looked disconnected and desynchronized for most of the opening 40 minutes. Andrei Kostitsyn – who hadn't played in two months - looked the most rusty of the bunch, missing two open nets that he could easily put away when on his game. Thankfully, the grinders had come to play and gave fits to the Bruins' defense who couldn't deal with the forecheck of Montreal's two bottom-lines.

Glen Metropolit scored the visitors first goal early in the third period by re-directing Tom Pyatt's pass in the slot behind Tukka Rask. Five minutes later, Maxim Lapierre gave the lead to Montreal after Rask gave a poor rebound on Travis Moen's harmless shot. Finally, AHL-veteran Mathieu Darche scored his third of the season once again by going the net and cashing in on Metropolit's shot rebound.

Down two goals, Claude Julien decided to remove his goaltender with two minutes to go while the game was still in play. Rask hadn't even gotten to bench when Benoit Pouliot intercepted Derek Morris' predictable pass and proceeded to score the empty-netter thus ensuring Montreal's victory.

There's not much to say about this game since it's basically the team that sucked less who won. It will be a much different story tonight when the Canadiens visit the San Jose Sharks. The good news is that after giving a soft goal, Carey Price was solid for the rest of game but I'm still uneasy watching him when there's a shot coming in from the blueline.

My 3 Stars:
3. Carey Price
2. Tom Pyatt
1. Glen Metropolit

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2009-2010 NHL Season, Boston Bruins

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2009 NHL Playoffs – Round 1: Bruins Sweep Canadiens With 4-1 Victory (Video Included)

April 24th 2009 04:56

For the second consecutive game in this one-sided series, the Montreal Canadiens were able to score the first goal of the match. But like all previous confrontations, the Boston Bruins – spearheaded by an opportunistic Michael Ryder - capitalized on every Canadiens' mishap in the defensive zone to walk away with another easy 4-1 win. The Bruins go on to the second round for the first time since 1999 while the Canadiens can finally put this nightmarish Centennial season to rest (though, technically, the Habs' 100th birthday will be celebrated this fall). Check out the game highlights in the video below...

Although this elimination brings great disappointment to Habs fans, what should have happened happened: the first seed eliminated the eighth seed. It takes pure delusion to think that the Canadiens squad who stumbled into the playoffs missing their top defenseman (Andrei Markov), their top-scoring center (Robert Lang) only to lose powerplay pointman Mathieu Schneider and winger Alex Tanguay halfway through the series. A weak Montreal team was even weaker against a strong, healthy, and disciplined Boston squad.

Now of course, “fans” are asking to blow up the team. “Get rid of the Kostitsyns, get rid of Plekanec, Price, O'Byrne, Komisarek – all useless bastards.” Those same fans were happy to see Ryder gone about a year ago. Now they're saying that letting him go was a mistake – funny how things turn around. I never liked Ryder, only good for one thing - shooting the puck, so I was – and still am – glad to see him go. People here in Montreal are raving about his 27 goals this season while they're crapping all over Kostitsyn who had 'only' 23 goals. Seriously? Am I the only one seeing something wrong here?

This season was doomed from the start, period. All the hype, the expectations from last year, the Centennial activities, the All-Star game put only more pressure on a squad that played only a handful of games with its intended roster. The injuries started to pile up since the pre-season and they never let up. The loss of Lang and the hasty return of Price after his injury were the fatal blows. The trip out West, the organized crime connections, the off-ice rumors, and the firing of Guy Carbonneau made matters even worse. Heck, it got the point where I didn't even expect them to make the playoffs. I was happy they did but once they lost Markov, it was clear that the dream was over before it began.

So, that's how it ends. Losing to the Bruins. Fitting, isn't it, that the team the Habs have owned for what seemed like forever eliminates them in the series. I'll continue to blog the rest of the playoffs by focusing on Boston and the Penguins (if they go through since the Flyers just pushed the series to a sixth game), and the Capitals if they manage the impossible against King Henrik. Out West, my focus will be on the Red Wings and the winner of the Blackhawks – Calgary series.

Similarly to last year, I'll post some stuff about Montreal's UFAs. There are eleven of them this year so forgive me if I don't write about them all. And now, I leave you with a quote from Bob Gainey talking about the pressure and expectations from Montreal fans.

“The people love the sport here and, in some ways, that's a positive, and in some ways, passion can be detrimental. It is what it is. It's a great place to play. The people care. It's a great team with great traditions. And we gotta compete on an equal level with everyone else. [...] I know that the guy in Nashville wants to win just as bad as we do even though people here think “Nashville? Who the hell would want to go there?” Well, you know what? They like hockey there and they play hockey there. They play to win the same as we do. And we've got no entitlement to a place in the playoffs. We've got no right to a place in the playoffs. That's why we play for one. And that's why we put our goal there at the beginning of every year.”

Till next time...

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2009 Playoffs, Boston Bruins

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2009 NHL Playoffs – Round 1: Bruins' Powerplay Kills Canadiens 5-1, Bruins Lead Series 2-0

April 20th 2009 17:36

Montreal Canadiens, Habs, Boston Bruins, Chara, Maxim Lapierre

Momentum. The Montreal Canadiens can't seem to get any this year and when they do it usually gets lost due to either a) a bad penalty, b) a missed assignment in the defensive zone, or c) poor goaltending. The Habs suffered from all three Saturday night as the Bruins easily skated to their second victory of the series – a 5-1 thrashing.

The Canadiens started the game relatively well. They even went as far as outshooting the Bruins for awhile before things started to unravel. First, Francis Bouillon who was playing his first game in two months left the game after two or three shifts, proving that Gainey's decision to start the small but strong defenseman was a mistake. Then, Sergei Kostitsyn also returning from injury took a ill-advised penalty halfway through the second period. Marc Savard scored on the subsequent powerplay after both Chris Higgins and Glen Metropolit failed to clear the puck. Less than five minutes later, Chuck Kobasew scored his first of the series by cashing in a rebound after evading Saku Koivu's marking in the offensive zone. And just like that, the Canadiens were back to where they started in Game 1.

Alex Kovalev – the best Montreal player on the ice by far that night – reduced the Habs' deficit to one goal less than one minute into the second period. Unfortunately, a goal by Shane Hnidy five minutes later completely deflated the Canadiens. Marc Savard and Michael Ryder finished off their opponents with two goals on the powerplay and the game was over. Jaroslav Halak replaced Price at the start of the third period but since no one except Kovalev had showed up to play, a comeback was highly unlikely.

The turning point of the game for me was Hnidy's goal. Price had made a couple of excellent saves towards the end of the first period to keep his team in a 2-0 game, but then in the second period, he goes and give a soft goal like that. Three of the Bruins' five goals were scored on Price's blocker side and two of those happened as the result of the Canadiens' defensemen backing in instead of stnading up at the blue line. This recurring problem in the defensive zone is probably what makes Montreal the worst team in the playoffs this year. They are last year's Senators: no offense and crappy defense/goaltending. Kovalev is the only one willing to try while the rest of the team is in desperate need of shooting practice. They don't keep count of shots missing the net but I bet the Canadiens had a lot more of those than real scoring chances. The Maxim Lapierre which was heavily touted as a playoffs line has been completely invisible while the Habs' supposed “second” line doesn't even exist snce Plekanec was an healthy scratch for Game 2 and Andrei Kostitsyn still doesn't understand that he needs to skate. The Canadiens have even more trouble up front since the TKK line has been dismantled in favor of putting Laraque on that line to bring “space” for Koivu and Kovalev. Perhaps Gainey hasn't realized that it was Tanguay who allows Koivu and Kovalev to gel effortlessly; without him there the line simply isn't the same. Having Laraque there is Carbo-coaching period and everyone knows that it doesn't work.

If I'm Gainey, I start Halak in net tonight (but then Price is Gainey's baby so he'll probably come back) and put Tanguay back where he belongs. Plekanec has to return also but a decision has to be made about the Kostitsyn brothers. They are the key to the series right now. If they can't buzz around the Bruins' net, Julien has only the TKK line to focus on and that makes his job a lot more easier.

My 3 Stars:
3. Alex Kovalev
2. Michael Ryder
1. Marc Savard