Your Boston Bruins welcomed in the Montreal Canadiens last night to the TD Garden for the last time this season. The B’s are in the midst of a 5-game homestead and so far have dispatched NJD and COL. With the NHL’s hottest team (WPG) visiting tomorrow, this was a big game. Actually, every time these 2 historic rivals from the Original Six square off it’s a big game.
It was only fitting that the B’s honored the 1988 Bruins who “broke the jinx” with a pre-game ceremony. In the times before the inter-webs, it took quite a bit for the Black and Gold Faithful to remain well.. faithful. Between 1946 and 1987 the B’s and MTL met 18x in the playoffs with the B’s going 0 for 18; oof even typing that gives me anxiety again. In 1988 however, the B’s turned that around and beat MTL 4-1 with the deciding game coming at the old Forum. How sweet. This ushered in a new era of Bruins’ fandom where it was possible to beat the ‘Habs. And last night the B’s honored those that got them over that hump.
So normally I’d break down each goal and talk about the setup and the execution, but sometimes less is more. Sometimes it’s better to let the onslaught speak for itself and lean into the deluge of Boston goals and enjoy some Boston Bruins Hockey Porn.
Without further ado, let’s get into it: Linus Ullmark was in net for the B’s only 11 days after having (what appeared to be at the time) sustained a serious injury. Luckily the Icebear Dude is built different and he was back in net today. In the MTL net was Sam Montembeault to start and then Cayden Primeau to mop up and share in the misery.
MTL got on the board first when Cole Caufield beat Ullmark on the power play. Less than 3 minutes later, the Bruins answered back with a welcome back goal by Brandon Carlo.
Joel Armia got the Canadiens back ahead briefly until Jake DeBrusk knotted it back up. I will say that DeBrusk is playing with some confidence to even attempt this move. This has Tue night beer league goal written all over it. You’re not supposed to be able to hit that against NHL D.
And then, late in the period, Danton Heinen got his first of the day when he finished off a sweet slap pass from Matt Grzelcyk to put the B’s ahead heading into the room.
With about 5mins played in the 2nd, Mike Matheson put MTL ahead again. Classic moment on the NESN feed as HOF’er Cam Neely was talking with Brick and Homeboy Jack when Matheson scored and he immediately quipped “Well on that note, I’ll be going”. Good to see big #8 has kept his sense of humor intact. After Trent Frederic and Josh Morrissey had a tillie behind the MTL net, the B’s had some chances, but couldn’t cash in on special teams. I will say the on-ice officials completely butchered the delay of game call as the puck clearly never touched glass and should have been a 2-man advantage, but right after the penalty expired, The Hockey Gods evened it out when Heinen got his 2nd of the night – blocker side.
And here’s Freddy chuckin’ ‘nucks
Just moments later, Charlie Coyle got in on the action when David Pastrnak led him perfectly on a go-route into the MTL end. That’s 2 goals in 49 seconds if you’re scoring this one at home.
Brendan Gallagher put another on the board for MTL before the period expired, because of course he would. But the B’s took a 5-4 lead into the second intermission. A slight negative on the night was the trouble that the D pair of Hampus Lindholm and Kevin Shattenkirk had clearing the blue paint in front of Ullmark. It was great to see Carlo back and Derek Forbort looked good in his return, but the D corp was missing some jump without Mason Lohrei back there.
In the 3rd the Canadiens wanted to be anywhere but at the TD Garden and the scoreboard reflected just as much. With less than 2 minutes played, Pastrnak notched his 4th straight 30+G season (6x he’s done it overall) when he broke in 1:1 on Jayden Storable and muscled his way to the paint to stuff one 5-hole past Montembeault.
With just about 15mins left in the game, Brad Marchand notched his 20th of the campaign. From behind the MTL net, Coyle fed Marchand in the slot and The Captain isn’t going to miss from there. Marchand now has 11 straight consecutive 20+G seasons which is a new club record. He also is now 3rd all-time with 20+G seasons with 13 (Patrice Bergeron is 2nd with 14 and the immortal Johnny Bucyk is the leader with 16 seasons).
Pavel Zacha notched his 100th career goal when he finished off a great feed from DeBrusk with James vanRiemsdyk causing havoc at the crease. Zacha’s goal was the camel that broke Montembeault’s back as he was yanked after this tally. This also triggered the first “Ole Ole” chants from the Garden Faithful.
After Zacha’s goal, of course MTL took a dumb penalty and who’d Monty put out on PP1? Danton Heinen sitting on 2G on the day without a career hatty. Little things like that is what make Jim Montgomery such a popular coach with his players. If you saw any of the postgame interviews all anyone was talking about was Heino’s first hat trick.
At this point it was all over except for the clock. 16 out of 18 skaters registered a point tonight with Forbort and Matt Poitras being the odd men out. It wasn’t the tightest game defensively, but the B’s needed this kind of offensive outburst. For too long it’s been only Pasta and Marchy can score and the team is in trouble if they don’t, well hopefully a game like this quiets that noise for a bit? I mean it’s not the ‘Habs of old, but you can only play who’s on your schedule.
Enjoy the images and videos of the night below and we’ll see you next time.
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The Morning Skate 
Great post Brownie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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