To be honest, last night did not feel like a Montreal/Boston game at all. I think it may have been the fact that so many of the Bruins' top players were out and that Mike Komisarek, Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu no longer play for Montreal. A huge part also had to do with the lack of Montreal fans in the building; it was probally the smallest amount of Montreal fans that I have seen in Boston in years, and a huge reason for that is that Boston has now become a tough place to get a ticket thanks to all of the bandwagons jumping on after last season, and the number of new season ticket holders who jumped on board just to get their Winter Classic ticket. I got to the Garden around 5:20 and never heard "Olé, olé, olé," and I saw very few red and blue jerseys. A small number of Montreal fans huddled around the Montreal bench for warmup.
When I got up to my seat, I noticed a Montreal fan was sitting in the seat next to me and I thought to myself, "Oh, great," but as it turned out he was an awesome guy. We started our conversation when he was telling his girlfriend how much he hates Hal Gill, which was music to my ears. As many of you probably already know, Gill is my most hated hockey player, and the fact that he plays for Montreal makes me hate him even more. When I heard him talking about Gill, I turned to him and shook his hand and told him how I agreed, and from there a friendship was made! We discussed both teams and the moves they had made, and he was a really great guy. He wasn't biased at all and wasn't singing "olé, olé, olé," which was a major plus for me; he actually dosen't even understand why they even sing that stupid song. After the first period was over, he asked me what I was drinking and I said, "Bud? Coors?" and he said, "You got it, I will be right back!" I couldn't believe that A) I was talking to and having good conversation with a Montreal fan and B) he was buying me a beer.
The Bruins came out hitting and showing a lot of intensity; I swear, that always seems to happen when Montreal comes to town. The Bruins were throwing shot after shot on Carey Price, who I was surprised to see make the start since he has lost his last 6 games, and also the fact that the Bruins have his number. The Bruins fans were chanting "CAR-EY" for a good portion of the night in the hopes of getting in his head. Montreal got the only goal of the first period as Dennis Wideman and Matt Hunwick collided at center ice, allowing Andrei Kostitsyn to have a breakaway in which Shawn Thornton made a valiant effort to break up, but Kostitsyn went around the net and centered it to former Bruins great Glen Metropolit who ultimately put it past Tim Thomas. It was really discouraging to see the Bruins go into the room scoreless for the 7th consecutive period. The Bruins powerplay, however, continues to be a growing concern. They failed to execute on their three chances with the man advantage last night and had zero scoring chances. There is no structure whatsoever and nobody goes to the net like they're supposed to. Claude Julien had two totally different powerplay units out there last night which I knew had no hope of scoring because the players who were on the units together haven't played on the same line together at all, or if they have, it hasn't been very often.
The Bruins and Canadiens battled through a scoreless second period, despite the fact that I thought the Bruins ended their scoring drought as Patrice Bergeron had a goal disallowed. Marco Sturm drove hard to the net and knocked the net off the mourings as Bergeron slid the puck under Carey Price. I thought the goal was questionable to begin with because Bergeron took a whack at Price's glove when I thought the puck was already covered up but the ruling was because the net had come loose. They didn't review it right away; it took a few Montreal players approaching the referees about the issue. After the goal was officially disallowed, the crowd seemed to get real hostile with very loud booing out of frustration. I really had to laugh because during the second period there was a little bit of scrum in which Andrew Ference and Maxim Lapierre were tangled up, and you could see on the Jumbotron that Ference wanted to go with Lapierre; Ference had his gloves off and when Lapierre wouldn't go, Ference made a hand gesture to him signifying that he's all talk. I can't stand Maxipad Lapierre; all he does is stir the shitpot and run away like a coward.
After battling, the Bruins managed to tie the game with 52 seconds left in regulation with an extra attacker on. Patrice Bergeron won the faceoff back to Derek Morris who fired it on Price, then Zdeno Chara knocked the puck over to Bergeron who roofed it over Price's glove to tie the game and record their first goal in 192 minutes; their last goal had come on Halloween when Vladimir Sobotka scored. It was such a relief to hear "Zombie Nation." The teams battled through a scoreless overtime which then led to the shootout. The Bruins sent out Blake Wheeler, Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi, all of whom failed to get one past Price. Michael Cammalieri netted the lone goal for Montreal. The Bruins take on the Buffalo Sabres at the Garden on Saturday and I'm dragging my Dad along. I hope he has fun, as it's a free ticket and quality time with his son, but I hope the Bruins at least put forth a decent effort for him.
The Line Combinations were as follows...
- Marco Sturm-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
- Blake Wheeler-Vladimir Sobotka-Michael Ryder
- Brad Marchand-Steve Begin-Daniel Paille
- Shawn Thornton-Trent Whitfield-Mikko Lehtonen
- Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
- Dennis Wideman-Matt Hunwick
- Andrew Ference-Mark Stuart
- MTL: Glen Metropolit assisted by Andrei Kostitsyn and Ryan White
- BOS: Patrice Bergeron assisted by Zdeno Chara and Derek Morris
- Bergeron: Napoleon Dynamite dancing
- AC/DC - "Back in Black"
- Nirvana - "Breed"
- Disturbed - "Indestructable"
- Jay-Z feat. Rihanna and Kanye West- "Run this town"
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