Habs Give Bruins A Beatdown In 4-2 Win

Only 2 games into the regular season and the Montreal Canadiens are on a roll, beating the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Saturday night.

David Desharnais kicked off an early powerplay just a minute into the 1st period by giving the Habs a 1-0 lead off a wrist shot. Alex Galchenyuk‘s cross-ice pass to Andrei Markov gave Desharnais the opportunity easily tap in Markov’s pass at the goal mouth.

Desharnais already showed that he was starting to adjust well to the 3rd line usage during the Habs’ 1st regular season game on Wednesday, but surprisingly it was the 4th line that showed positivity in the first 20 minutes. Overall, it was one of the strongest PP’s that the Habs have shown in the last couple of years.

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After the Bruins grabbed their 1st PP 2 minutes after (with the Habs successfully killing it off), Montreal earned another PP from Joe Morrow‘s hi-stick on Dale Weise. Unfortunately, the Habs struggled to make anything out of the 2 minutes, but made up for it 8 minutes later with some strong action during the 4-on-4 hockey that had Torrey Mitchell and Adam McQuaid in the box. Both teams played tightly, but the 1st period ended with the Habs still holding the lead as well as leading 10-8 in shots.

A lazy pass across David Krecji led to an attack from the SEGa line. After a pass from Galchenyuk, Alexander Semin‘s slide-pass to Lars Eller led to another puck buried in the Bruins net, giving the Habs a 2-0 lead 2 minutes and 15 seconds into the 2nd period.

The Habs came off strong right at the start of the period, going up 5-1 CF in the 1st few minutes, but the Bruins started to pick up the pace and had the chance to get down in front of the Montreal net, where Loui Eriksson put the puck past Carey Price. However, with the play already looking offside to begin with and with Patrice Bergeron getting in the way of Price, the goal wasn’t counted even with Claude Julien using his coach’s challenge.

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A few minutes later, a bad turnover gave the SEGa line an opportunity to lead the puck to the back of the net again, with Galchenyuk setting up Eller for his snapshot and a 3-0 lead. This was Galchenyuk’s 3rd assist of the night.

With a little over 5 minutes left, Matt Beleskey was able to solve Price on a bank shot, with the puck bouncing off Jeff Petry and going right in the side of the net. In the end, the board stayed at 3-1 with the Habs outshooting the Bruins 18-7.

The 3rd period showed quite a struggle for the Bruins, as the Habs were coming off stronger offensively despite having some sloppy defense early on. Montreal were creating some solid scoring chances, while things were looking even more messy for Boston only 3 minutes into the period. With Ryan Spooner being ejected from the game with a 5 minute major due to boarding Brian Flynn, the Habs had the chance to put a few more pucks past Tuukka Rask on a 5 minute PP.

Oct 10, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban (76) wears a winter classic hat during warmups prior to a game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

2 more PP chances came up for the Habs late in the period, the 1st being from Brad Marchand‘s slashing against Nathan Beaulieu which put the game at a 5-on3 play and the 2nd coming from Colin Miller‘s cross-check on Dale Weise

Both of Montreal’s powerplays came off sloppy with the Habs constantly making bad decisions with the puck, which made it easier for the Bruins to successfully kill them both off. Despite some sluggishness coming from the Habs, the Bruins pulled Rask for the last few minutes of the game for an extra attacker. This led to Tomas Plekanec giving the team an empty net goal and what looked like a possible 4-2 win until Bergeron was able to put the puck past Price with just 30 seconds left.

While Montreal got their 6th straight win overall against Boston and controlled the game right from the start, last season’s PP struggles lead to lost scoring chances for the the Habs. I understand that the changes Marc Bergevin made in order to avoid sitting in the 23rd spot again won’t come overnight, but Plekanec preaching to the choir about making better decisions today in order to avoid relying on Price seemed to be an overall bust. A power play needs to be a threat, and right now the power play looks like a tiny laser pointer.

The pro about tonight’s game, however, was the fact that the Habs took away all momentum from their rivals in Boston. The Bruins had trouble sustaining offensive pressure throughout the entire game, being outshot 38-21. Let’s also be honest here, Boston was just an overall hot mess. Something tells me that the Winter Classic is going to be both exciting and predictable when it comes to who will win.

How did you feel about tonight’s game? Do you think the Habs are going to fall back into “save me, Price” mode by mid-season? Let us know in the comments below!

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