Game Sixteen: Bruins vs. Habs

MONTREAL 4, BOSTON 2:

THIRD PERIOD:

- Habs and Bruins through 40 minutes. I'm not buying the "Boston has been better" narrative. Not for a second:

- In other news, Galchenyuk might not get 10 minutes of ice time tonight, which is kind of insane, and will most certainly not help the Habs in their cause. 

- Smith-Pelly on the 2nd line "experiment" needs to end. He does a pretty good job maintaining puck pressure, but doesn't do his line mates, especially Galchenyuk, any favours in making himself a passing option. Smith-Pelly just doesn't have the anticipatory tools to be on anything other than the 4th line.

- Missed open net chances by Bruins forwards tonight (Krejci and Talbot). Let's see if that comes back to haunt them later.

- Pacioretty has been quite for a while, but he storms in off the rush, and gets four shots on Gustavsson, before Plekanec puts in the rebound. But Gallagher was in the crease, will he be nailed again for goaltender interference, costing the Habs another goal?

- Chris Lee the call, goal is disallowed because Gallagher deemed to have interfered. Thing is, what could Gallagher do? Chara was hammering Gallagher from behind into Gustavsson. Where could Gallagher go?

- Bruins stacking their line in defence of the Habs rush. Seems a little early ... but so far, so good.

- Sweet, so sweet. Galchenyuk with fantastic work deep in the Bruins zone, fires a shot on Gustuvvson, who gives up a juicy rebound to Eller. Tie game. Habs, who've been the better team overall, finally tie the game.

- Habs 4th line just had a fantastic shift, hemming Bruins in their zone. Momentum all Montreal at the moment. 10 minutes left. 

- Krejci with three stupid penalties tonight, none dumber than the crosscheck he just got called for on Plekanec. Two minutes left, two minute powerplay.

- Bruins live off the powerplay, DIE off the penalty kill. I think we said that already tonight. Desharnais off the rebound (juicy) by a great Galchenyuk shot. Krecji one man wrecking crew tonight, against his own team. Bruins have just a minute left to tie this.

- Paciroetty. Empty net. Game over. Habs were the better team, and overtook the Bruins down the 3rd period stretch. Great win tonight for the Canadiens. Another notch on the belt. So awesome.

- Game ends on a garbage note as the classless Julien send outs career human trash Rinaldo who steams after Beaulieu, leaves his feet and extends his elbow for a head shot. Beaulieu, righteously, puts his arms up, resulting in his stick hitting Rinaldo's face. Chris Lee, an awful referee, gives Beaulieu a match penalty. The Bruins are pathetic. Claude Julien is pathetic. Chris Lee is pathetic.

SECOND PERIOD:

- Habs and Bruins through 20 minutes, adjusted to exclude the wretched penalty calls:

- Just to be consistent, Luxmore, who's had quite the night, with a terrible hooking penalty on Krejci.

- Bruins live off the man advantage, and die off the man advantage - specifically killing penalties. Plekanec finishes off a pretty three way passing play to beat Gustavasson blocker side. Bruins PK pretty bad covering the passing lanes. Game tied.

Now Luxmore misses a high stick on Fleischmann, only five feet away from the official. Players from both benches are all over Luxmore, who's just having an awful, awful night.

- And icing on the cake, Luxmore calls Mitchell for a slight cross to Miller's shoulder, Miller going down like he was shot. The League needs to do an intervention with this official.

- On resulting powerplay, Krecji somehow misses a totally wide open net off a rebound. Condon totally out of position. Four feet of completely open twine. Krecji misses. Karma.

- Bruins aren't called for a clear-cut hook, and seconds later, Vatrano scores his NHL first goal, with Emelin doing a nice screen on Condon. At this point, I'm ready to just throw my hands up.

- Gustavsson is a bit of a wanderer in net. Either going after a puck shot in, or even in his crease. Surprised he isn't burned more often.

- Crazy given his flailing style, that Gustavsson has managed to hang around the NHL all these years. His success keeping the puck out really depends on a lot of luck.

FIRST PERIOD:

- Terrible too many men call by referee TJ Luxmore. No, it wasn't Chris Lee.

- This Bruins powerplay is crazy. Bergeron scores, his 5th of the season. All of his goals have been on the man advantage. Off a terrible penalty call, no less. 1-0.

- Half way through the first period, Bruins' attack is pretty meek. Habs defence for the most part, is anticipating the rush, and breaking up most of Boston's zone entries. The Bruins truly are a team that live and die off their powerplay.

- Belesky with clear-cut snow on Condon, and officials give Plekanec a penalty. Okay, then.

- Habs kill the man advan ... never mind. Markov now nailed for a slash. Habs doing their best to muff this up, playing exactly into Boston's biggest (lone?) strength. 

- Saw a reply of the penalty. Miler with a grotesque dive, and the official (Luxmore) totally got suckered. The officiating in the period has been abysmal. 

- All the bad officiating has given the Bruins all the momentum, beside the fact they've failed their past two powerplays. At this point, the Habs want to just get through the 1st period, and start the slate clean for the 2nd. 

- Emelin welcomes Vatrano with a crushing check into the boards. You can get away with that kind of thing in the Juniors, but not in the bigs, kid.

- Given how potent the Bruins man advantage has been this year, and how terrible the officiating was in the first period, Habs will be pleased with the 1-0 score. The Bruins still don't pose much of an offensive threat at even strength, although their forwards did a very nice job bottling up the neutral zone, which stifled many a Habs transition attempts. Still, 1-0 is not a big deal.

GAME PREVIEW: SORRY BOSTON, YOU'RE STILL A TERRIBLE HOCKEY TEAM

Hey, check out those Boston Bruins!! 6 wins! 5th place in their Division. Not nearly the 2nd-to-last-place team yours truly predicted at the start of the season. Boston is GOOD.

Well, you could argue that the Bruins aren't a bad team, but then, you'd be wrong. The Bruins are still a bad team.

Sure, Boston does have more wins than regulation losses. Sure, the Bruins have the 2nd rated offence in the NHL. Sure, the Bruins have the top rated powerplay in the NHL. And sure, what I've just mentioned is kind of the big problem with Boston right now.

To explain what I mean, let's back up a little. The Bruins got their season off to a pretty terrible start - losing three straight to Winnipeg, Montreal and Tampa Bay by pretty resounding final scores (outscored 16-7). But then the Bruins went on a nice little 7 game streak, posting a 6-0-1 record. Not bad!

But who did the Bruins beat over that 7 game period? Teams like the Colorado Avalanche, the Arizona Coyotes (twice), the Philadelphia Flyers and the Florida Panthers. In other words, Boston wasn't exactly generating victories over the cream of the League's crop.

Still, the Bruins did beat Tampa Bay (whom are off to a slow start), and New York Islanders. Those are two pretty good hockey teams.

How did they do it? By riding what has been a remarkable wave of powerplay success. The Bruins, through 12 games, have a powerplay scoring at a 35% success rate. That's unbelievably high, with unbelievable being the key word here not only because they're nearly 8% points higher than the second rated powerplay (Dallas), but also because 35% simply isn't a sustainable figure. To give you perspective, the all-time mark for powerplay success was the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens, who had a 31.88% success rate. The 2015-16 Boston Bruins are not the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens, who were arguably the single greatest hockey team ever constructed in the history of hockey.

Anyway, recall that 6-0-1 streak? During that time, the Bruins scored 32 goals. Of those 32, 8 were scored with the man advantage, meaning that even while winning, Boston is dependant on their powerplay scoring at least 1/4 of all their goals.

The powerplay has helped bolster the Burins to the number 2 rated offence in the NHL, scoring at a 3.58 GPG clip. Take away Boston's powerplay goals, however, and their GPG drops to 2.33, which would drop their offence ranking from #2, down to #23.

So it's all a house of cards - and it shouldn't be a surprise that the Bruins has lose their past two games against a couple of good hockey teams, the Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars.

Tonight, the Bruins are faced with the task of taking on the very best team in the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs continue to roll along, putting together a pretty impressive win over the New York Islanders a couple of nights ago. The Habs, in addition to leading the League, also have the League's #3 penalty kill, with an 89.8% efficiency.

Tonight's game shouldn't post too much of a problem for this Habs team. Not as long as they can stay out of the penalty box. Stay out of the box, and you take away the Bruins best, if not only, weapon.

Lineups tonight? No changes for the Habs. For the Bruins, their lines will look like this:

1: Marchand/Bergeron/Connolly
2: Eriksson/Krejci/Vatrano
3: Beleskey/Spooner/Heyes
4: Talbot/Kemppainen/Randell

Chara/C. Miller
Krug/McQuaid
Morrow/K. Miller

Gustavsson.

Whooops? No Rask tonight? Probably because he's been a career disaster playing in the Bell Centre. Gotta roll those dice, if you're the Boston Bruins.

Puck drops at 7:10 EST.

Game Six - EC Semi Finals: Bruins vs. Habs

SOMEBODY IS GETTING A FINE ON TUESDAY AFTERNOON:

Oh, Andrei. You know we love you to death, but we can't possible condone the stickwork with a clear conscience. We know you're just settling a few scores, but that's the wrong way of doing it. Enter, the GREAT Dale Weise:

See Andrei? That's how you give the Bruins a taste of their own medicine: With sardonic and sarcastic delight.

Montreal 4, Boston 0:

THIRD PERIOD:

- Don't say we haven't been begging for Murray to be mothballed, but the evidence is kinda really in: Beaulieu's possession tonight, 77%. Murray's this series? 29%.

- Start to this period will be critical - Habs must maintain their composure, and also their forecheck. They played an exceptionally sound game in their zone Game 3, if they can replicate that for 20 more minutes, the Bruins will have an almost unclimbable hill. 

- Here come the Bruins. Price needs that A game more than ever.

- Habs aggressive in the neutral zone, this is what they need to do. Also hustling back hard to break up Bruins rushes.

- Beaulieu with a tremendous shot block, that has him smarting. Possibly saved a goal.

- Doug Hamilton very, very lucky for not getting called for delay after taking out the Boston goal on a Habs 3-on-1 rush. Officials determined to give Boston every possible benefit of the doubt, here. 

- Habs playing an excellent third, the Bruins are basically throwing caution to the wind, desperately trying to generate a goal. It's resulting in many great chances for the Habs off the rush. Habs defense very sound, calm, composed, and effective. 10 long minutes still left, though.  We haven't forgotten Game 2.

- Desharnais may not have scored in a long while, but he makes a remarkable diving play to somehow keep the puck out of the net. That's an incredible athletic play by Desharnais to keep the Bruins off the board.

- Short change really benefiting the Habs this period in protecting their zone.

- As time winds down in the 3rd, Habs have to be extra aware of Bruins taking cheap shots with intent to injure.

- Vanek with the empty netter. Habs will play one more night.

- Now, and this is very important, the Canadiens must avoid all physical contact, all Boston attempts to hit cheap and/or dirty. Tonight's lineup will be Wednesday night's lineup, for all the marbles.

- Here comes the Bruins goon show. Skate away guys, skate away.

- And so we go to Game 7. Habs played an excellent elimination game - did everything right, and were aided by good bounces, both in scoring, and in Boston not scoring, especially earlier in the game. Key moments was the Habs holding steady after getting caught in their zone, with Gorges running a 3 minute shift. The other was a shift by the Briere line with 6 minutes left in the second period, which really stunted the Bruins' momentum, and in retrospect, caused the period to flip completely in the Habs favor, where they were able to extend their scoreboard lead from 1, to 3-0.

I cannot envision Therrrien changing his lineup Wednesday. Tonight, the team clicked. Beaulieu was just fine, thank you very, very much. This is the team that will either live, or die, in 48 hours.

I'll say it now. The winner Wednesday night will play in the Stanley Cup Final. So hold on. It's going to be intense.

SECOND PERIOD:

- Glorious missed chances off the powerplay. Really should be 2-0. Bounces ominously not going Habs way.

- Bruins powerplay apparently only making a game 5 appearance.

- Subban comes out of the box, and long change catches the Habs badly, the Bruins hemming them in their zone for nearly two straight minutes, with Montreal pinned 3 defenseman. Exhausted, they can't clear. Bruins push hard, but Canadiens somehow manage to win the puck and clear the zone.

- Bruins with a strong 2nd, real bounce-back period. But they're failing to capitalize on great chances, Marchand, Lucic both missing sure-fire scoring chances. Again, we have to wonder if frustration will set in on that Boston bench?

- Habs defense doing long-bomb zone clearances, which is not only a bad sign, but it's essentially automatically surrendering puck possession. This cannot be sustained. The Bruins will keep coming back and pounding the puck deep. Eventually they will score, unless and until the Habs are able to regather their composure, and focus on clearing their zone while maintaining possession.

- Habs 4th line with a solid shift, able to generate a couple of turnovers, able to outpossess the Bruins. This is critical in turning the momentum tide, which is right now, firmly with Boston. Canadiens should be focused on finishing the 2nd period aggressively, the opportunity at hand to generate some separation heading to the final frame.

- And there we have it. Beaulieu with time, a fine long pass that takes a crazy bounce, Pacioretty outskates Rask to the puck, and finally, finally scores. This is huge. Mega huge. 2-0.

- And Vanek makes it 3-0 on the powerplay. Bounces again going the Habs way. But really, he and Desharnais and Pacioretty have finally delivered on the promise. And the Habs are now in great shape forcing this to a game 7.

- That shift by the Habs 4th line with 6 minutes left was a real game changer. Depending on how this game pans out, and possibly Wednesday night, it could be a series changer. We'll see.

FIRST PERIOD

- Welp, I must admit I had a bad feeling heading into Saturday night, much much better feeling heading into tonight. But that's just my gut feeling at this point.

- Therrien not holding back, putting in Briere, pulling out Moen. He's looking to outscore, outspeed the Bruins tonight. The physical stuff is shelved. There's nothing more to be gained from "outhitting" this Bruins opponent.

- Gio better shake her hand.

- Prust gets the honor. Here's hoping he gets a better result tonight.

- Firsr huge break of the night. Miller with terrible misplay behind his net. Eller capitalizes. Can the Habs keep building on this bounce?

- Tremendous start for Montreal . Forecheck very resembling of game 3. Bruins basically in retreat trying to weather the storm.

- Desharnais line comes within a hair of making it 2-0. Lots of fire in their belly so far. Best looking they've appeared this series.

- Habs winning most of the puck battles firing shots on Rask at every angle. No way they can sustain this pace over 60 minutes, though.

- Julien in a tough spot. Therrien matching Desharnais line against Bartkowski and Miller, wit the last change. Bruins may be forced to over play their top 4.

- unbelievable PK for the Habs, highlighted by an astonishing shift by Emelin. Boston in total disarray. Probably the best kill of the season. Right there.

- Game settling a bit, but it's still one of the best periods this team has played all year.

- Siren goes to end the period, Bruins attempt to sucker the Habs behind their net, but Hamilton is the only one penalized with a vicious cross on Plekanec. Habs will have man advantage to start the 2nd. 

- Habs looked good. Great even. Early period checking was near perfection, and surprisingly physical. Boston, even knowing their opponents were going to come out hard, looked a little shellshocked the first 10 minutes. Game settled down somewhat, officials let a lot of nasty stickwork go, most of it committed by Boston. The only area that looked weak for the Habs was puck control in their own zone - too many clunky and unforced turnovers, a couple of which generated some pretty high percentage scoring chances on Price. Still, there's no way the Habs can't be happy with the result. The only big question is, can they maintain this vigor and pace all the way to the finish line? If they somehow can, they'll be in great shape to force a game 7. Huge if, though.

GAME 6 PREVIEW:

Need motivation? Well, you can start with this:

Need more? About about this:

Or if that still isn't enough, maybe a bit of this:

Ladies and gents, the Boston Bruins, in all of their bush-league, arrogant glory. 

It's all pretty simple at this point for hockey fans in Montreal. Lose, or go home. The Canadiens face elimination for the first time this season, as they take on the Bruins at the Bell Centre.

Right now, a betting man wouldn't dare touch the Habs. After Thursday's devastating 1-0 OT loss, and Saturday's listless 4-2 defeat, the Bruins look to be unstoppable.

But ... there remains hope. Not much. But some.

The crux of the Habs hopes focuses on a couple of late Game 5 incidents, both very similar in nature. First, Milan Lucic, with his team holding a comfortable lead (apparently) started taunting P.K. Subban with a series of arm flexes. With 4 minutes left in the game, Shawn Thornton, who earlier in the series attempted to fake injury after hitting his knee against a dodging Subban, sprayed the Canadiens defenseman with water to his face as he was skating by the Boston bench during play. The spray cost Thornton a $2,800 fine, a mere pittance for an NHL regular.

While the League seems unwilling to take meaningful action against such classless behavior, those two acts were noted, and have been talked about by Habs players and coaches alike since Sunday morning. They were acts brazen with arrogance, committed by a team that believes that it's above the law of the League. To a great extent, that's true. The National Hockey League continues to look the other way, even though Boston consistantly acts very, very badly on the ice and their bench.

So there's a score to be settled. The question is, does this Habs team have the gumption to put Boston back in a humbler place?

While no official lineup changes have been announced, there's been lots of speculation today that the Habs will start the young Nathan Beaulieu, in place of the screamingly incompetent Doug Murray. It would be a bold move, especially considering that it would be Beaulieu's very first post-season game of his life, and against the Habs' fiercest rival in a do-or-die contest. This isn't tossing Beaulieu into the deep end. It's tossing him into the Mariana Trench.

Still, the logistics do make sense. Paired next to Mike Weaver, who's had an excellent series as a shot blocker and defensive defenseman, Beaulieu's specialty leans towards possession and transition. Weaver can do his job stopping pucks, Beaulieu can do his moving them.

Ultimately, we won't know for great certainty if Beaulieu will start until warmups.

Otherwise, the ongoing story continues to be the lack of production by the players who everyone assumed would produce. Once again, all eyes will be on Max Pacioretty and Thomas Vanek, the former who has but just one goal in 9 playoff games, the later who's posting the worst possession numbers among all - that's right - all Habs players, except for Doug Murray.

Other players to watch out for include Thomas Plekanec, who had a string of disastrous shifts Saturday night that contributed directly to the Habs loss. Meanwhile, fans are growing increasingly impatient again with the performances delivered by Rene Bourque, who just two weeks ago was playing like a Conn Smythe candidate, but against the season, has looked like the usual, listless, unproductive, regular season self.

This 6th game of the series won't be easy.  Carey Price will have to play extraordinary well, even by his standards. There is much more pressure on the Habs tonight, especially against a Bruins team that seems to be strutting with great confidence.

But there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. With the Bruins, it's especially thin. This is a team that tends to fray very quickly when things don't go their way.

Tonight, the ghosts must make their presence felt. The Habs need the benefit of some luck if they have any hopes of playing Wednesday, one final time, against the despised Bruins.

Puck drops at 7:40 EST. For perhaps the last time until October.

4:45 P.M. EST UPDATE: Beaulieu is IN tonight, according to TVA.

Game Five - EC Semi Finals: Habs vs. Bruins

THIRD PERIOD:

- Habs really need to somehow score whitin first five minutes of this period to cause concern for Boston. Otherwise, this thing ain't happening tonight.

- Shortsift Murray. Play Subban 10 minutes. Desperate times. Desperate measures.

- Plekanec is just totally lost tonight. Can't skate, can't pass, even struggling to receive the puck.

- Instead if seeing if they can recapture their magic, Therrien moves Bourque up with Plekanec and Vamek. He stubbornly won't play DD/Max/Vanek. For whatever reason.

- And of course, Bourque goes offside off a neutral zone turnover. Because he's not used to playing with either. Maddening.

- Habs running out of time. They must shorten their bench to three lines - maybe even run just four D.

- Man, where the heck did Tampa Bay Rene Bourque disappear to?

- Eriksson. And goodnight.

SECOND PERIOD:

- Fully prepared for the to be an incredibly ugly period for the Habs.

- And we're off. Smith. 2-0.

- Plekanec draws another penalty. Iginla scores another goal. The route is on.

- Just horrid play by the Canadiens tonight, not helped a total miscalculation by their coach in his decision to add muscle while sacrificing speed. The net result is the Habs were run into the ice. The lesson is obvious. You play the strengths upon what your team is built on, not try to be more like your opponent. Therrien's fundamental failings as a coach and decision maker on full display tonight.

- Nightmare series for Pacioretty. Misses wide open net, easy goal off Rask rebound. Unbelievable.

- Gallagher? We think. 3-1. We think. 

- If the Habs can add one more before this frame then we have reason to hope. Until then? Nope. Not the way the Bruins are playing tonight.

FIRST PERIOD:

- So Murray starts. On the road. What a magnicent mistake.

- Agressive start for the Habs but it fails to produce any good scoring chances. Boston meanwhile, shooting every chance they get. One post hit.

- Bartkowski with a clear dive, referee is fooled.

- Bruins with two fruitless powerplays so far, not helped much by what appears to be wretched ice conditions.

- Bruins strike. What was Murray doing behind the net? No idea.

- Anyway, that goal was mostly Murray's fault - he went chasing the wrong man, and left the slot completely exposed. That's one already. Probably more to come.

- Habs with a pretty meek powerplay tonight, this team is clearly feeling the pressure to produce, and is rushing their passing. Team does not look relaxed or confident. This could be a very very long night in Boston.

- Habs have nothing going this period. Absolutely nothing.

GAME 5 PREVIEW:

What else is there to talk about that hasn't already been talked about to death?

Let's cover the familiar territory, I suppose. The series is square, momentum seemingly on the side of the Bruins coming off a hard fought Game 4 OT win, and with it, the retention of home ice advantage.


What else is familiar? Well, the same ol' same ol' - the Habs continue to obsess over size and toughness in a series that's had relatively few penalties, although that's more a condition reflecting the unwillingness of the officials to make calls. In any case, this physicality focus has resulted in the Canadiens inserting Doug Murray, probably the League's worst defensemen, into the lineup the pastor  two games, the net result some pretty horrible zone stats (16% Corsi), and slow play - which was, as you see the .gif above, a DIRECT result of the Bruins OT winner. Murray is and has been a DISASTER, but he still gets the mind-boggling benefit of the doubt. Will he play tonight? Probably. Will the Habs be a lesser team because of it? Absolutely certainly.



Argh.


No point in dwelling on these monumental roster mistakes, I suppose. It is what it is. Meanwhile, the heat has been picking up on the players who are supposed to be delivering offense - most notably Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Thomas Vanek.  Perhaps the greatest amount of criticism is now being levied on Pacioretty, who's scored just one goal in the 8 post-season games played so far. There's also Desharnais, who's failed to produce, although his effort level has unquestionably been high, so to a great extent, he's dodged a lot of the arrows.

Tonight, Therrien will send out Deshairnas and Pacioretty, although without the luxury of last change, both will almost certainly have to dead with Zdeno Chara, who, according to Max at least, has contained the Habs biggest scoring threats so far in the series. Meanwhile, Thomas Vanek remains a bit of a puzzle - does Therrien continue to divide his assets, and play Vanek next to Thomas Plekanec again, or does he reunite him with Desharnais?


With the officials seemingly unwilling to call penalties, specialty units, which played a big role in games 1 and 2, have suddenly become non-factors, which suits the Bruins just fine. Therefore, the keys to tonight's game will be the Canadiens' ability to generate some offense amongst the players who are supposed to deliver, be in 5v5 or with the man advantage. If the producers can't produce, then the Habs chances of taking the next 2 out of 3 won't be very good.


Puck drops at 7:10 EST.


====================================================================

Sweet jeebuz. Nearly 48 hours on, are people actually questioning the usage of Doug Murray? Are people still defending his insertion into the lineup?

LORD AND Hockey Gods alike, help us all.


GAMEDAY NEWS 'N' NOTES:

- Bruins practice this morning, same defensive line sets as Game 4 - so more Bartkowski, et al.

- Lucic did not attend practice. It was optional anyway. I'm sure he's spending the spare time sharping up his stick blade.

- Speaking of skipping optionals, Rene Bourque did that as well this morning.

- Post-practice, Max Pacioretty spoke to the media for 10 minutes, mostly about his lack of series production. Pacioretty's explanation? Chara. I'm not buying it. Max was matched away from Chara for most of Game 3 and 4, and he still failed to produce. The issue with Pacioretty is simple - he's not burying scoring opportunities, mainly because he's failing to hit the net with shots.