Listening to Canadiens fans and media talk about the Boston Bruins ever since the 8-6 debacle at TD Garden six weeks ago really has me befuddled.
I like to think my coverage of the Canadiens is free of any homerish bias, even though total objectivity when covering a single sports team is an idealistic myth, one that most consumers of that coverage don't even necessarily want.
However, you do hope that the opinions you form and the words you chose are based on facts, and not any pre-conceived theories that can overly skew your view of things.
This is why I am a little perplexed to hear fans on sports call-in shows and even some of my colleagues in the media talk about how the Bruins would have their way with the Canadiens in the playoffs, and that Thursday night's final meeting of the regular season is akin to sending lambs to the slaughter.
The same talk encompassed the city before these two teams last met, with many imploring the Canadiens to call up some muscle from Hamilton to allow them to compete with the Big, Bad Bruins.
Then the other night, after the Canadiens 2-0 loss to the Sabres, I was stunned to hear a friend suggest that Carey Price shouldn't play in Boston because the Bruins will simply run him and it's not worth the risk.
Fans affected, players not
The Oxford Dictionary defines the word "intimidate" thusly: frighten or overawe (someone), especially in order to make them do what one wants.
I would say that the way many fans and media in this city are thinking of the matchup with the Bruins falls right in line with that definition: they are feeling exactly the way the Bruins want them to feel.
Except it isn't, as far as I can tell, working with the actual players on the Canadiens.
When they look at the Bruins, they may very well see a team that beat on them in that brawl fest in Boston six weeks ago, or a team that left a teammate hospitalized by a career-threatening injury that thankfully was not as bad as originally feared (or that was faked, as a certain veteran Bruin who should know better said Wednesday).
But above all that, the Canadiens surely see a team they have beaten nine times in 11 meetings over the past two seasons. There is no point looking at the Bruins four-game playoff sweep in 2009 because only four players who will suit up for the Canadiens in Boston on Thursday night played in that series: Carey Price, Tomas Plekanec (assuming he's in, and I believe he will be), Andrei Kostitsyn and Roman Hamrlik.
That's why the frame of reference here should only be the last two seasons, because while both teams have undergone some changes over that span, the core players have remained largely the same.
A chronology of a rivalry
In light of that, I thought this would be a good opportunity to take a brief look back at the 11 games of this rivalry, because it serves as a perfect illustration of why the Bruins are so easily frustrated by the Canadiens.
2009-10 season
Nov. 5, 2009: TD Garden, 2-1 shootout win
Patrice Bergeron scored with 52 seconds left to tie the game 1-1 and help the Bruins avoid a third straight shutout, but Mike Cammalleri scored the lone goal in the shootout for the win. Price made 42 saves for his first win in over a month, while Tim Thomas countered with 25 saves. It marked the eighth straight game the Bruins collected at least a point against the Canadiens, who still hadn't registered a regulation win in Boston since the end of the 2007-08 season.
Dec. 4, 2009: Bell Centre, 5-1 win
The famous centennial game where the Canadiens entered on a four-game losing streak, but rode a second period hat trick by Cammalleri to a rout. The Bruins entered that game on a 6-0-1 run, and the fear in the city that the Canadiens would lay an egg in this historic game is comparable to how many people have felt prior to this latest meeting and the last one. Price made 37 saves in the win while Thomas allowed all five goals on 23 shots before being pulled in the second.
Feb. 4, 2010: TD Garden, 3-2 shootout win
Jaroslav Halak made 45 saves and Brian Gionta scored the lone shootout goal on Tuukka Rask to hand Boston a ninth-straight loss (0-7-2). Still, the Canadiens streak of failing to win in regulation in Boston was maintained.
Feb 7, 2010: Bell Centre, 3-0 loss
Rask made 36 saves and allowed Boston to snap a 10-game slide and avoid tying a franchise record in a Super Bowl Sunday matinee. It was Boston's first win in three weeks, and I remember the sense of relief in that room after the game. Halak took the loss with 24 saves on 27 shots.
March 2, 2010: TD Garden, 4-1 win
The first game after the Olympic break, this is where the Canadiens began their second half surge towards the playoffs and snapped that streak by getting a regulation win in Boston. With Halak sitting after a long trip back from Vancouver, Price made 23 saves while Glen Metropolit, Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Darche scored on Rask. Benoit Pouliot added an empty-netter. The Canadiens lost their next game 3-2 in San Jose by allowing two third period goals, but then went on to win their next six in a row, including this next meeting against Boston. This also snapped a pre-Olympic streak of four straight wins for Boston.
March 13, 2010: Bell Centre, 3-2 win
Sergei Kostitsyn scored twice, including the winner early in the third off a misplay by Rask behind his own net for Montreal's fifth straight win. It put the Canadiens in a sixth-place tie in the Eastern Conference standings, a cushion they would ultimately need because of a 3-4-4 finish to the regular season that saw them squeak into eighth place with a shootout loss to Toronto in the final game of the season. Of course, we all know what happened afterwards.
2010-11 season
Nov. 11, 2010: TD Garden, 3-1 win
P.K. Subban scored his first career goal and Price made 34 saves to give the Canadiens their fourth straight win in Boston. Gionta snapped a tie with a power play goal early in the third, and Scott Gomez got the insurance goal midway through the third. Rask took the loss despite making 38 saves.
Dec. 16, 2010: Bell Centre, 4-3 win
Max Pacioretty got his first goal of the year one night after making his season-debut in Philadelphia in a game that can be pointed at as the starting point of the current bad blood between these two teams. Subban's open ice hit on Brad Marchand late in the first period led to a penalty on Gregory Campbell for going after him, and Pacioretty's goal that made it 3-1 with 30 seconds left in the first that came just as Campbell was exiting the box. This was also the game where Mike Cammalleri squared off with David Krejci, sparking Krejci's now infamous quotes about how the Canadiens are dirty divers that were only emphasized by a Boston Herald columnist in a post-game piece that ultimately reflected exactly how the Bruins felt about the Canadiens.
Jan. 8, 2011: Bell Centre, 3-2 overtime win
If the Bruins frustration with the Canadiens began with that Subban hit in the last game, it was cemented in this one as Boston blew a 2-0 lead by allowing Gomez and Gionta to score in the final 2:22 of regulation before Pacioretty scored the overtime winner, giving Zdeno Chara a shove in the back after scoring his third of the season. I don't need to tell you what happened after that.
Feb. 9, 2011: TD Garden, 8-6 loss
The brawling is all anyone remembers from this game, but that is not why the Canadiens lost. Gomez and his wingers Kostitsyn and Lars Eller were a minus-4 in two periods of work, with Gomez playing a leading role in allowing four of the Bruins first five goals. With a healthy 5-3 lead more than halfway through the second, the fireworks began and the Bruins let out all the pent up frustration that had built over losing eight of the previous nine meetings with Montreal.
March 8, 2011: Bell Centre, 4-1 win
This was the most highly-anticipated game of the season, but again, things did not get ugly until the game was out of reach. With Montreal leading 4-0 late in the second period, well, do I really need to get into what happened? The only thing worth adding is the behaviour of Milan Lucic with fewer than three minutes left, chasing after Pouliot to settle a score from the last game where Krejci got knocked out in a fair fight, the only real one the Canadiens won all night.
So, based on that kind of history, which is the team that should most logically feel intimidated?
It's the Bruins, and not only because they've lost nine of 11 games to the Canadiens over the past two season, but because the apparent reason for that lack of success appears to be out of their control.
I was curious as to why this happens to Boston, a very good team on paper who over the past two seasons has collected points at a .608 clip against the rest of the league, but only .318 against Montreal.
I decided to check how their core players have performed against the Canadiens over the past two seasons, and while some players clearly underperform, it's not enough to explain such a disparity in wins and losses.
Patrice Bergeron
Vs. Canadiens, 2009-11 – 10 GP, 3 G, 6 A, 9 pts, +7, 0.9 points per game
Vs. rest of league, 2009-11 – 134 GP, 38 G, 58 A, 96 pts, +17 0.72 points per game
Zdeno Chara
Vs. Canadiens – 11 GP, 1 G, 4 A, 5 pts, +1, 0.45 ppg
Vs. rest of league – 143 GP, 19 G, 59 A, 78 pts, +43, 0.55 ppg
David Krejci
Vs. Canadiens – 9 GP, 0 G, 6 A, 6 pts, +2, 0.67 ppg
Vs. rest of league – 135 GP, 29 G, 73 A, 102 pts, +29, 0.76 ppg
Milan Lucic
Vs. Canadiens – 9 GP, 5 G, 2 A, 7 pts, +6, 0.78 ppg
Vs. rest of league – 110 GP, 34 G, 34 A, 68 pts, +13, 0.62 ppg
Mark Recchi
Vs. Canadiens – 11 GP, 1 G, 3 A, 4 pts, +3, 0.36 ppg
Vs. rest of league – 142 GP, 30 G, 54 A, 84 pts, +15, 0.59 ppg
Michael Ryder
Vs. Canadiens – 11 GP, 2 G, 2 A, 4 pts, -1, 0.36 ppg
Vs. rest of league – 142 GP, 33 G, 34 A, 67 pts, -1, 0.47 ppg
Where the real dip occurs is between the pipes, and specifically Boston's Vezina Trophy frontrunner.
Tim Thomas
Vs. Canadiens – 1-2-2, 3.99 GAA, .885 SP
Vs. rest of League – 46-26-14, 2.19 GAA, .930 SP
Tuukka Rask
Vs. Canadiens – 1-4-1, 2.51 GAA, .917 SP
Vs. rest of league – 31-20-6, 2.22 GAA .926 SP
But even this drop in the performance of the goaltenders can't fully explain how Montreal has managed to have Boston's number to such a dominant degree over the past two years. All that is clear based on recent history is that whatever the Canadiens are doing appears to be working.
Which means even if the Canadiens lose this game against the Bruins, the ones who should be intimidated in any future playoff match-up are the ones wearing black and gold.
