CANADIENS
Montreal

1-2

BRUINS
Boston

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Radulov
Lehkonen – Danault – Shaw
Byron – Mitchell – Gallagher
Carr – Flynn – Andrighetto
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Markov – Petry
Beaulieu – Redmond
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Michael McCarron, Mark Barberio

Injured Reserve

Alex Galchenyuk (knee), David Desharnais (knee), Greg Pateryn (ankle) 

Game Report

The mainstream media, particularly the folks on 690, have been going out of their way this season to claim that a rivalry no longer exists between the Canadiens and Bruins rivalry, given Montreal’s recent head-to-head success. As if to present them with a hockey lesson (and we know that they need more than a few), the two teams presented a classic Bruins – Canadiens match on Monday night.

The game featured excellent goaltending at both ends, thundering checks and more than a bit of controversy.

Montreal did a decent job of creating offence 5-on-5 but the visitors did a better job of shutting them down. With respect to blocked shots, the Bruins had a huge advantage 25-8. On the power-play, the Canadiens couldn’t generate anything, going 0-for-5 on the night.

Post-game Brendan Gallagher said, “The biggest reason we only got one point was the power-play. It has to be better.” Perhaps the Canadiens do miss Alex Galchenyuk after all.

After destroying Colorado 10-1, many claimed that injury holes in the line-up had been filled through masterful coaching by Michel Therrien. Not so fast. The success came against the worst team in the league. Monday’s game reminded us all that offensive talent is still missing and could be a problem going forward against some of the better teams in the league.

During Galchenyuk’s absence, an effective power-play could be the great equalizer but that has not happened yet. All that said, the Canadiens still had a chance in overtime to pick up the win. But Therrien’s personnel choices (something that is not his strong suit) were heavily criticized after the loss.

It was an entertaining game that featured a bit of everything and yet another example of what remains one of the best rivalries in sports.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Andrei Markov, Brendan Gallagher, Alexei Emelin, Artturi Lehkonen, Jeff Petry

▼     Zach Redmond, power-play

1.  Tuukka Rask  BOS
2.  Carey Price MTL
3.  Ryan Spooner  BOS

Max Pacioretty

• “It was fun. There was a lot of emotion. I think once the first period ended and guys realized that points were too valuable to try and take a penalty, then that’s when the game started to open up a bit and guys started to make more plays.”
• “But, the first period was definitely physical and emotional. We would have liked to get two points, but we battled back for one.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “I saw the hit. Regardless of what you think of it, when you see your teammate get up the way that Shawzy did, he had blood coming from his face there and there was some contact. Shawzy is a guy who would have done that for every single guy in this room. I wasn’t the only guy willing to do that. It was just my turn. That’s something that teammates do for each other.”
• “I don’t get into many of those, so I was hoping it would last a little longer. It is what it is. I don’t think either of us do that too much.”

Nathan Beaulieu

• “It’s the type of game you want to play, not giving up many scoring chances, a low-scoring game. They played well, too. It was probably one of the toughest battles we had this year and it was a fun game to be a part of. Boston-Montreal is always fun, and I thought we put on a good show for the fans.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

Time to double shift 67 & 47. Shorten the bench #Habs @AllHabs

— Blain (@BlainPotvin_THW) December 13, 2016

Krug turtles against Gallagher…. Huge for him to stand up for Shaw after a questionable hit. @AllHabs

— Matt Smith (@Snakebite350) December 13, 2016

https://twitter.com/Baygold2/status/808505830324703233

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