The Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins are in unfamiliar territory as they meet on Thursday night at the Bell Centre. The Bruins haven't won a game since the trade deadline after they underwent a fire sale, and on Tuesday night fell into last place in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1997. It looks like a rebuild is on the horizon for the Bruins just as the Canadiens enter their contention window, which will likely rob us of many meaningful games between these rivals for another few seasons.
The Bruins can still make this game interesting on Thursday as they attempt to play the role of spoiler. Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco echoed that sentiment in his post-practice press conference on Wednesday. "For us, it's a good opportunity to try to make their chances of progressing into the playoffs a little bit harder, play a spoiler against them tomorrow night.".
How to Watch Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens
Date: Thursday, April 3, 2025
Time: 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT
Venue: Bell Centre
How to Watch: Sportsnet, RDS, NESN, FuboTV
Sacco might be saying he wants to play spoiler, but we all know the real goal in the Bruins' front office. The team has one of the league's worst prospect pools, and Canadiens fans know better than anyone how quickly that can change with some high-end draft picks. The Bruins are fourth-worst in the league heading into this game, and have an outside chance of going as low as third-worst if they lose most of their remaining games. For a team needing to pick in the top-five, losing most of their games is the best course of action.
The Canadiens are feeling good after back-to-back wins over the Florida Panthers. It was a giant step toward the playoffs, and it'd be an unforced error to lose this game against the struggling Bruins and give back another two points. They'll boost their lineup with the return of Oliver Kapanen from Europe. He will bring more depth to the forward group, and the Canadiens are hopeful he'll be a better player than we saw in the first half of the season after his successful loan to Timra IK.