The meeting of the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs will be the 33rd meeting. The most that two teams have ever met each other in NHL history.
While the Habs has taken the lion's share of their meetings, the Bruins have nonetheless won series against them. Most recently, the Bruins swept the Habs in the 2008-2009 playoffs in the first round.
That was then and this is now.
The Season Series
Montreal won the season series 4-2, but it was not as balanced of a series.
The first three games went to Montreal in regulation and it seemed that the Habs had Boston's number.
Two of these games were one-goal games. The final matchup resulted in a 7-0 lopsided affair for the Bruins.
The latter half of the season series, Boston won two of three of these games.
Montreal Advantages
Speed/Skill
The Canadiens are a smaller, but quicker team. Mike Cammalleri is heating up at the right time with three goals and two assists, but can he keep it up? Tomas Plekanec just came back from injury and in the final five games notched one goal and three assists.
The Captain, Brian Gionta has scored three goals and two assists as well giving the Habs a boost much needed as they are low in the scoring department overall (14th in the league).
Special Teams
The Habs are dangerous on the power play and you don't have to tell the Bruins about that. The Habs have scored in bunches against the Bruins in the man advantage. As well, the Habs, are in the top half on the penalty kill. Look for the Habs to goad the Bruins into penalties.
Is The Price Right?
Netminder Carey Price has had flashes of brilliance this season, but crashes of concern as well. All of his losses are not by fault of Price alone, with among the worst defensive cores in the league. To put in retrospect, Price is the second most shot against goalie in the league with 2,147 shots against him.
The playoffs has not been too kind to Price. With one series win back in 2007-2008, he still allowed 30 goals in 11 games. In the 2008-2009 series, he was swept by the Bruins and allowed 15 goals in four games. In last year's run, he played in four games, but posted one loss and no wins as in was Jaroslav Halak that shined to bring the Habs to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in years.
In short, no Carey Price, no shot at the cup. If Price hasn't improved in playoff games, they will once again sit out the Stanley Cup Finals.
Boston Advantages
Size/Grit
Pound for pound, the Boston Bruins are a large, fast team. They are not as fast as the Habs, but for the size they carry, the Bruins can move from end to end pretty quicklyv .
Zdeno Chara, the largest player in the NHL, has a long reach that can give any team that is trying to penetrate into the offensive zone fits.
All players are willing to keep the puck away from their net as much as possible. The Bruins are known to get into the faces of their opponents and when PK Subban exerted his pesky role, Nathan Horton was willing to give him a taste of his own medicine keeping him in check.
Lucic, who has not been putting up the fight numbers, is busy making goals and has earned 30 this year: his career high. Don't count him out of the play. He will pound his opponent into the boards just as much as he will go to the net. Look for Lucic and Recchi to be a pest in front of Price.
Just as much as they will use their size to create plays, they will also use it to push the smaller Habs away from the net to give Thomas and Rask better looks. At the same time, they will need to keep their skates out of it as many a goal was scored on a deflection off their own skates.
Consistency
The Bruins do not have that go-to guy to depend their offensive scoring like the Washington Capitals have in Alex Ovechkin or a Sidney Crosby for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but is this really a disadvantage?
With teams that have an offense so dependent on a select few, and defensive team such as the Bruins play, all four lines have produced well for the B's this season and that can create havoc for the shutdown lines as they can only be out on the ice for a finite period of time.
With a deeper lineup, the Bruins' front men are both offensive and defensive. Players like Lucic, Horton, Marchand and Krecji can not only light the lamp, but can keep the lamp behind their goalie off.
Defense
The Bruins have allowed the third least amount of goals this season in the league and are looking to keep that trend alive. The Bruins need to play smart and keep the Habs to the boards. Keeping them away from the net will make life much easier for the goalies.
Healthy Lineup
The Bruins are very healthy this year and if they can keep that health, they will improve their chances as opposed to the Habs who are relatively banged up. They got back some of their players, but is it too soon?
What the Habs need to do to win
Use their speed and skill. The Habs have the tools to get past most defenses to get the goals needed to move on.
Get under the Bruins' skin. If they can get in the minds of the Bruins, they could do one or two things: create retaliatory penalties and make them play over aggressively.
Don't try to match the physicality of the Bruins. If they try to play a tit or tat game against the Bruins, Price can only do so much for his team. That is a match they will lose.
Do not depend on Price so much. Although a goalie of Price's caliber can steal games, so can Thomas and that is a gamble that the Habs should not make.
What the Bruins need to do to win
Play hard and play smart. The Bruins have the combined size and speed to play hard and physical while keeping themselves out of the Sin Bin.
Mike Cammalleri stated that they have the speed to wear down the Bruins, but didn't take into account that the Bruins have the hard physical play that can wear down the Habs. You can be sure that the coaching staff are hammering it into the Bruins to keep themselves in check but be the physical team they are made to be.
Time and Space. The Bruins need to take away the time and space from the Habs. If they can do that, they take away a major part of their game and can easily win this series (if so, I don't expect a sweep by any means).
Food For Thought
Some will keep talking about the season series won by the Habs 4-2 and that is fair. What is also fair, is that the Bruins won two of the last three and out of the six games, two of the losses were by just one goal (one including an overtime loss) and that was at the Bell Centre. Games that close can go either way at anytime. Including playoff time.
While the Bruins have not won any of the three games played at the Bell Centre, the Bruins did win their two games at the Garden. Seeing that the Bruins have home-ice advantage, that could lead to a "first time for anything" moment for the Bruins.
That being said, no one should consider this series to be a runaway for either team. It should be close.
I am a strong believer that a lot of physical with a decent amount of skill added with a cup of depth will win championships. Some Habs fans state that speed and skill will win cups. I view last season as a contradictory result. While the Habs did take the Capitals and the Penguins, both very skilled and not-so-physical teams, they were defeated by a physical, decent skilled and deep team in the Philadelphia Flyers. Just my two cents.
Prediction
As I stated, this will not be a sweep and I think it will be close. Boston has the necessary tools to get it done. It will come down to smarter play. Bruins in six.
Mýa Natalie Imbruglia Patricia Velásquez Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki
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