Canadiens-Bruins Series Preview
A Look Ahead at the To-Be-Renewed Northeast Division Rivalry
Despite a one-sided season series between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins, anything can happen in the National Hockey League's upcoming second season.
The matchup was the first to come to surface in the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference. If history is any indication it will be the first to be decided as well...
Can anyone really blame the Boston Bruins if they were secretly hoping to face the Pittsburgh Penguins, instead of the Montreal Canadiens, in the first round of the upcoming NHL playoffs? Hell, considering their 0-7-1 record against the Habs this season, they would likely sooner petition league commissioner Gary Bettman for a crossover series against the West's Presidents' Trophy winning Detroit Red Wings before actually travelling to drop the puck against Montreal. And it isn't even just this season. The Canadiens hold a 23-7 lifetime edge over the Bruins in the playoffs. Since the turn of the century, the Canadiens have likewise two notable quarter-final victories over their division rivals.
In 2002, the eighth-place Habs were huge underdogs against the top-seeded Bruins. Yet, on the strength of the goaltending of Vezina and Hart Trophy winner Jose Theodore, they were able to take the series in six games. In 2004, the year just before the lockout, the Habs overcame a 3-1 deficit for the first time in the franchise's history to lay waste to the B's once again. Now, the casts have changed greatly over the past four seasons, but the goal remains the same for each squad: To simply destroy their opponents en route to a potential Stanley Cup victory.
Who can forget Kyle McLaren's clothesline on then-Hab Richard Zednik in 2002 that led to a suspension to the former and a concussion for the latter? How about Alex Kovalev's run-in with Sheldon Souray in overtime of game four in 2004 that led to Glen Murray's game-winning goal on Theodore before the Canadiens got their wits about them and rallied for three straight victories? While the emotions will most certainly run high over the course of this series, all those little factoids get thrown out the window, even Montreal's eight-win advantage over the Bruins this past season.
When Montreal captain Saku Koivu backhanded the shootout winner past goalie Tim Thomas March 22 for the season-sweeping 3-2 victory, Thomas was clearly pissed. He tripped over his own crease on his immediate trek to his team's lockerroom, visibly upset. He likely knew what everyone else in the Bell Centre did that evening, that the game could just as easily have turned in Boston's favour, that Boston could have avoided the sweep. Sure, Montreal may have a psychological advantage over the Bruins, but, if they do, it's only a slight one. The old adage is that anything can happen in the playoffs. That will probably weigh more on the hearts of the Bruins than any sweep can or will. Even the huge discrepancy in head-to-head series wins can arguably be attributed to a flip of the coin, albeit one that much more often than not turns up on Montreal's side. It's a highly improbable theory, but not an impossible one. Put simply, what's history is just that. Even though Montreal is the better team, Boston will give the Habs a fight. Prediction: Montreal in six games.
