By Stevo, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC. — There are many reason to be positive about the position the Montreal Canadiens’ find themselves in, following their 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday night. Sure there’s the obvious, they are still ahead 2-1 in the series and hold home ice advantage.  But there are countless other reasons as well.

The high powered Boston Bruins’ offense has been all but held silent in this series so far.  David Krejci picked up his first point of the series in the third game (goal), while in the same game Patrice Bergeron picked up his first two points of the series, the second of which was an empty netter. Milan Lucic is still scoreless in this series.

Much of the credit for this goes to Carey Price, but if he and the Canadiens can continue to hold the Bruins to less than two goals per game on average, it greatly increases their chances of success.

Even the pesky little Brad Marchand has been somewhat invisible in this series, following his numerous missed chances in Game 1.

On the Canadiens’ side, although Plekanec only has one point (goal) in this series, he’s arguably been their best player. He’s brought hard work and determination to every game and looks to be an unlettered leader in this series. One area he will need to improve upon however is face-offs, where he’s only averaging 44.8% (26 won vs 32 loss), ranking him 37th in the playoffs.

The Bruins have been much better in this category with both Patrice Bergeron (65.4%, 36 won vs 19 losses) and David Krejci (55.3%, 21 won vs 17 losses) ranked 3rd and 13th in the playoffs respectively.

Michael Cammalleri has two points in the last game, bringing his series total to four points (1 goal, 3 assists), leading the series in points.

Coming off of an injury, Andrei Kostitsyn had a solid game, registering a goal for his team, two body checks and five shots on goal.

Even P.K. Subban, who has been sloppy at times, ended the game with an assist, four body checks, two shots on goal and a blocked shot.  It should also be noted that P.K. Subban played another 26:50 of ice time in this third game, bringing his playoff average to 27:01, third amongst all players in the league.

Carey Price has received some criticism for his performance in this last game, but the truth is, Tim Thomas wasn’t any better. Although Thomas played very well to protect his team’s lead, he was very soft on both goals allowed, and has pretty much given up at least one weak goal in every game this series. The Habs need to take advantage of this, and not only get a lot of shots on goal, but get players in front of the net to obstruct Thomas’ view, and take advantage of rebounds.

We’ve talked about how special teams would be important in this series but so far, it hasn’t been a determining factor.  The Habs are only one for twelve on the powerplay while the Bruins have gone zero for eleven.

The final reason to be positive about the position the Habs’ find themselves in, going into game four is how they responded after playing so poorly in the first period of Game 3. They could have resorted to the fetal position and handed the game to the Bruins on a silver platter. (Some might argue that’s what they did in the first period mind you.)

They did however battle back. Down 3-0, they scored two and made a game of it, they lightly outshot the Bruins in the second period (13-10) and heavily outshot them in the third period (15-6), outshooting the Bruins in this game 36-25.

It was however, too little too late, as has proven to be the case all series long, team’s scoring the first goal simply don’t lose.

The Montreal Canadiens were 32-6-6 this season when scoring the first goal, compared to 12-24-2 when giving it up. The Bruins in comparison were 30-6-6 when scoring the first goal, compared to 16-19-5 when giving it up.

In the end, we can find many reasons to be positive, but Score First or Else.

(Graphic: Elsa/Getty)