Montreal Canadiens wrap up season series with Boston at TD Gardens
By Omar L
After shutting out the Colorado Avalanche, the Montreal Canadiens are back at it to take on a historical rival in the Boston Bruins.
There’s nothing like a night of hockey between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins. Both teams tend to bring out the best in each other when squaring off and given the makeup of the standings; it’ll be an important opportunity for points, especially for the Habs.
The team responded well from a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues by returning home to shutout the Colorado Avalanche 3-0. Brett Kulak made got the Habs going offensively scoring shorthanded after Shea Weber was called for hooking while Jesperi Kotkaniemi broke his 12-game goalless drought to put the Montreal Canadiens up by two. Jonathan Drouin ended a slump of his own as well as his assist on the Kotkaniemi goal was his first point in four games.
Boston is continuing to heat up as the second half of the season continues. They’ve won five of their last seven games including a bounce-back win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
The Bruins have also gotten the boosts of a healthy Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara. However, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand are still leading the way offensively with 53 and 47-point seasons respectively. Another thing that has worked in their favour are the performances of Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak.
The two goaltenders have evenly split starts for Boston and haven’t made the team regret it:
- Rask: 13-8-2 | .921 save percentage
- Halak: 13-7-2 | .924 save percentage
The former Montreal Canadiens netminder got the start the last time the two teams played stopping all 22 shots. Bruce Cassidy could go with Halak again for this game allowing the veteran an opportunity to respond from a Thursday defeat at the hands of the Washington Capitals. At the same time, Rask got the win over the Leafs and shut the door firmly shut when they were fighting hard for the tying goal.
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Claude Julien changed the lines up on Saturday, and it got the job done for the most part. If there aren’t any more alterations, they’ll play out like this:
Montreal Canadiens
Forward Lines
Jonathan Drouin – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher
Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Joel Armia
Tomas Tatar – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Paul Byron
Kenny Agostino – Michael Chaput – Nicolas Deslauriers
Defence Pairs
Victor Mete – Shea Weber
Mike Reilly – Jeff Petry
Brett Kulak – Jordie Benn
Goaltenders
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Boston Bruins (based on last game)
Forward Lines
David Pastrnak – Patrice Bergeron – Brade Marchand
Jake Debrusk – David Krejci – David Backes
Danton Heinen – Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson – Ryan Donato
Sean Kuraly – Noel Acciari – Chris Wagner
Defence Pairs
Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug –Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Kevin Miller
Goaltenders
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
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The Montreal Canadiens are in need of points with the battle for wild-card spots becoming more and more claustrophobic. As much as it will depend on Price to play well, the team needs to limit chances and capitalize on their own. Its game like these where a powerplay goal can do wonders or shutting down a man advantage opportunity can become a key moment. And given the firepower of Boston’s top line, the Habs will need some of those to succeed.