The Boston Bruins came through, or more like their captain, Zdeno Chara came through, as they beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 in their Quarter Final Playoff Series game opener. The Bruins jumped to a 2-0 lead but Montreal came back and tied it up 2-2 before Chara blasted a laser front the point to win the game for his team. The Bruins added an empty net goal and walked away from a game they easily could have lost.
Bruins Set The Physical Tone Early
The Bruins came out for a physical game, laying on the body on every shift. Milan Lucic crushed one Hab forward into the side glass (I think his surprised expression can still be seen etched into the glass) and it seemed every other shift one Montreal player after another would be squashed into the boards, slump to the ice with a dazed look in his eyes. All that was missing was little cartoon birds flying around their heads, as the Bruins took full advantage of the size difference between the two teams.
Montreal's noted toughguy, Georges Laraque bragged before the game that he would set the tone in the Habs' favor and had dismissed Scott Thornton as too puny for big Georges to worry about. For all his talk, and being on the Montreal's top line, he registered only a single hit even though Laraque had the most playing time he's had all year since joining the Habs. He played 13 minutes and surprise, was pointless, had one hit and spent most of his time glaring menacingly at Chara. Scott Thornton was yapping at Laraque before one faceoff, but he didn't pay much attention. You could say that Big Georges was more like Big Gaping Void in this game.
Meanwhile Lucic spent a fair bit of time hitting all the little red, white and blue jerseys that scampered across his path. Lucic was a monster in the hitting department during the regular season with 262 hits, and the hits just kept on coming. And he got a couple of assists in that game, which matched Laraque's total output for the 33 games he appeared in all season. Of Lucic or Laraque, who would you rather have on your team? Hands down, Lucic all the way, everyday. The Laraque Experiment in Montreal can only be described as a colossal mistake.
Goal Scoring
The game was relatively penalty-free until the final minute of the third period, so the power-plays of both teams are top notch and the Bruins went 1-4 and the Habs, 0-2. Bruins sniper Phil Kessel opened the scoring with a wrist shot that beat Carey Price at 13:11 of the 1st period. Price had looked a little shaky early on (one announcer of the game took great umbrage when the color commentator expressed dismay at Price's lukewarm play. The first guy had been obviously favoring the Habs, as usual, and kept saying "the Bruins player" did this, and "the Boston player" did that, every thing the Canadiens players did early was "dominating" and ever shot directed at the Bruins net "just missed the far corner" - shoddy favoritism). If you can't see the players' names (or just don't know the players' names) it's time to get out of the announcing bidness Joe. (Mini-rant over.)
Price did start looking better and more sure of himself as the first period wore on, but when David Krejci put the Bruins ahead about a minute and a half after Kessel's goal, visions of Price returning to his "Holie-The-Goalie" form must have made Habs GM-coach Bob Gainey look down the bench at Jaroslav Halak and contemplate a hook. But Price held the fort and turned in a decent performance for the remainder of the game as the Bruins buzzed the net time and time again. Boston owned Montreal in the first and outshot them 15-9, but the second saw a rejuvenated Habs squad after a late first period shot by Chris Higgins beat Tim Thomas. Montreal outshot Boston 13-10 in the second and got their tying goal on a beautiful shot by Alexei Kovalev. Several times the Canadiens almost made it 3-2 except for the good defensive work by the Bruins rearguards and Thomas.
The third looked like it might be shades of past games and series between the two longtime rivals. Close game - getting later in the game - both teams getting their chances, and then a stupid penalty. In other years, it would be Boston getting the bad penalty, but this time it was Montreal defenseman Josh Gorges who got the gate for cross checking P. J. Axelsson behind the play as Montreal was chugging up-ice.
Zdeno Chara Steps Up
So far in the game, Boston's power play had been unsuccessful, with only 4-5 long shots on Price when Boston had the man advantage. The Bruins almost always kept the puck in the Habs zone, but it seemed that they kept trying to pass once or twice too many times. Not this time.
The puck came to Marc Savard who was hovering to the right of Price, he dropped his shoulder and without looking, passed back to Zdeno Chara who had cruised into the mid-ice as the Habs defenders had all fallen back expecting Savard to pass into the slot. The pass back to Chara caught everyone by surprise and the man with the hardest shot in the NHL slapped a onetimer right past Carey Price. It was a beautiful goal and a backbreaker for the Habs. (Funny: as the Bruins converged on Chara to congratulate him, Savard kissed him on the cheek). From there til the end of the game the Bruins looked like they were solidly in charge. In the third Boston was on the attack again after Chara's goal and outshot, outhit and most importantly, outworked the Montreal team.
Lapierre Mugs Kessel
The Habs pulled Carey Price for the extra attacker with a minute left and when Mathieu Schneider tried a long pass to try to break into the Bruins end, Milan Lucic snarfed up the pass and bolted into the Habs zone on the left side of the Montreal net, as he flew past and Schneider swung his stick and clipped Lucic on the head but Lucic steamed towards the empty net but with a couple of Habs blocking him from a clear shot, he slipped a pass over to Phil Kessel who potted his second goal of the night. Maxim Lapierre apparently took exception to Kessel's easy goal and dragged the Bruins top goal scorer to the boards and that brought Lucic, Komisarek and the rest into it.
Lucic grabbed Lapierre off Kessel, and Bruins defenseman Matt Hunwick tried to hold Mike Komisarek out of the fray. Hunwick had Komisarek pawing at his face (some, including Marc Savard, thought it was an eye gouge and that's what the replay looked like) and Hunwick's eye looked nasty afterwards. Lucic and Lapierre received 2 minutes for roughing and 10 minute misconducts. Then 14 seconds later, more of the same, as there was another "gathering" and after the pushing and shoving, Steve Montador and Guillaume Latendresse were assessed 2 for roughing and 10 minute misconducts.
Now, it's on to Game 2 on Saturday... more of the same bad blood is expected.
Game 2: Sat Apr. 18 @ Boston 8 p.m.
Game 3: Mon Apr. 20 @ Montreal 7 p.m.
Game 4: Wed Apr. 22 @ Montreal 7 p.m.
Game 5: Sat Apr. 25 @ Boston* 7 p.m.
Game 6: Mon Apr. 27 @ Montreal* TBD
Game 7: Tues Apr. 28 @ Boston* TBD
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