Bruins head coach Claude Julien obviously knew he’d be granting his team this morning off when he spoke via phone with Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette yesterday.
He obviously also felt more comfortable expanding upon his thoughts about whether the Canadiens will seek revenge on Zdeno Chara tonight when they visit TD Garden for a game scheduled for 7 p.m.
At first Julien gave Stubbs the same answer he offered after yesterday’s practice to the assembled media: you have to ask the Habs if they’re going to try for retribution.
But then he went on to point out to Stubbs that the Bruins have been in Montreal’s place in the past and handled themselves differently.
Julien told Stubbs:
“No one wants to see a player hurt. We have (concussed Marc) Savard now who might be done for his career. Nobody wants to see that on your team or another team. Certainly (Pacioretty’s injury) was unfortunate. I said it from the day it happened – rivalry or not, you never wish that on anybody.
“You’re asking me if (retribution) is going to come and I’ll tell you, well, it’s going to come from the other side. You’ll have to ask them that question. I don’t think that’s the way they handle things, I’d be very surprised.
“The last hit Savard took from Matt Hunwick (Jan. 22) in Colorado was deemed a clean check and it was. We didn’t turn around and start chasing Hunwick down the ice. Those kind of injuries happen.
“If the Canadiens see things differently, I guess that’s their way of seeing things and they can deal with it the way they want.”
Now the first humorous scenario in your head right now has to be of the Bruins, who took months to replace Hunwick’s speed after trading him, trying to catch the player they dealt away whose only redeeming attribute in his game is his skating.
But on a serious note, Julien has a point. And I’d suspect the Habs will take a similar tact. So far, the quotes out of their locker room have been all about hockey and not revenge.
“If you ask Patch, the biggest thing right now is for us to win,” Canadiens forward Ryan White told the Canadian Press about Pacioretty yesterday. “We’ve given ourselves an opportunity to catch these guys and tomorrow’s a big four-point night.”
TSN writer Darren Dreger presented another reason there won’t be any dirty tricks tonight, when he wrote:
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman met with Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli and Montreal Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier last week in Florida and made it clear to both that Thursday’s game between Montreal and Boston had better not result in a gong show.
When it comes down to it, we’re probably going to witness a playoff hockey game three weeks early tonight. There might be an early 1-on-1 fisticuff, but then it’ll just be high-paced, hard-hitting rivalry hockey. That’s the way it should be.
I can’t get enough of people typing the way they speak broken English. A+ for effort, D- for execution. Keep it coming though guys, I love your passion for the game as long as it’s not vulgar! I do try to decipher what you are saying out of respect for the hours it must take you from your initial thoughts to hitting the ‘submit’ button.
You guys crack me up. This morning you were all calm and rational. now as the game approaches, the drool starts to fall, the knuckles start to drag.
I don’t have to defect the opinions about Recchi. I was just communicating how it’s being received. It’s funny, a couple weeks back, all of you turned on Joe Thorton for saying what the rest of the league were thinking…
@rf, learn to read. I said the Canadiens weren’t angels. I just said they were more subtle. Try looking the word up if you don’t know what it means.
Nice, rf!
Its all good the diving team can still play even when lucic and other run after him….Subban recorde is 1st hat trick and drop glove vs Bogosian(bigger)and other player but he has a BRAIN.We know we can do the same on ur smaller player since all ur team would come….
Lucic and all Bs are opportunist and only fight vs smaller or choosen oponent he should continu playing like when Laraque was there all intimidate 😛
Subban wont get intimidate by the bears but this dont mean he would no drop the glove n fight
Boston team wont do clean fight,they are opportunist ,Fighting whit glove or elbow protector,and they never stop when the guy is down or wont defend hiself!
If Krejci want more Pouliot can arrenge hiself cleanly
Habs heavyweight = 31 Price, Carey G 6-3 219 LOL
Diving team would surprise alot again in playoff
AK should do again same as he did to lucic and zdeno
AK, good to see you admit the Bruins run all over the Habs, like Mr. tough guy himself, Subban. What a faker. Lucic is going to pummel him again tonight
I wonder if that bitch PKS will ever drop the gloves vs. Bruins? And if White is afraid of Thornton and Lucic I understand. Maybe Ferrence or Cambell can have a go. The Boychuck attempted hit on PKS was pretty clean, no idea why White reacted like this.
Of course the Habs would like a fast paced game with no hitting, but that isn’t how the B’s can win especially at home. I expect to see the B’s hit everything that moves hard. Looking forward to a hard fought game tonight. It’s nice to see some Habs on here having civilized discussions. Welcome, and may the best team win.
2011 Canada Senior National Diving Team
13 Cammalleri, Michael LW 5-9 185
34 Dawes, Nigel LW 5-8 193
58 Desharnais, David C 5-7 182
81 Eller, Lars C 6-1 192
63 Engqvist, Andreas C 6-4 197
75 Gill, Hal D 6-7 250
21 Gionta, Brian RW 5-7 175
11 Gomez, Scott C 5-11 200
15 Halpern, Jeff C/RW 6-0 203
44 Hamrlik, Roman D 6-2 209
46 Kostitsyn, Andrei LW 6-0 208
22 Mara, Paul D 6-4 212
32 Moen, Travis LW 6-2 215
45 Picard, Alexandre D 6-2 210
14 Plekanec, Tomas C/RW 5-11 197
57 Pouliot, Benoit LW 6-3 199
31 Price, Carey G 6-3 219
94 Pyatt, Tom C/RW 5-11 182
55 Sopel, Brent D 6-1 201
76 Subban, P.K. D 6-0 202
68 Weber, Yannick D
53 White, Ryan C 6-0 202
20 Wisniewski, James D 5-11 205
@RD – don’t let a little thing like facts get in the way of your argument – Canadiens have 33 fewer PIMS this year than the Bruins – and a WHOPPING 30+ less Major penalties – they prefer to hack slach spear and hook instead of dropping the gloves.
Rusty. Give your brim a little pinch. Well said my friend.
Mayb u didnt start running over Hunwick…BUT
Lucic was running over Pouliot and PK
Hroton running over PK
Chara running over Max(The game before that hit)
They all going against smaller guy that have more talent 😉
U are krazy this week end :P:P
Mayb in playoff !he would start practice whitout hit soon and would see how he would feel i think u didnt have good info!
As for cooke why u didnt defend him?Hes ur kind of favorite player
A concussion cannot be analyze by u!Croby is out for a long time and he played whit it and was able o stand up…
Yes the hit and injury look 10x more damage the nsavard,bergeron,crosby booth perron a lot of player that miss so much game
Watching the Montreal game the other night, can’t remeber if it was CBC or TSN. They reported that Max P could be back playing this weekend. Glad to see he’s back, but come, on a Severe Concussion!!!
If Rex was out in the community raising money for your charitys and hospitals, great. That means he’s a great guy. If he wants to voice his opinion that the Habs may have played up the severity of the head injury in order to get Z suspended, thats his choice. You can pull that short sound bite out of context and make it sound real bad. He never said Patches was faking. You can’t fake a head injury. You can however, from a team standpoint, say that his career and livelyhood may be in jeopardy well before knowing the actual severity of the injury. I don’t believe this makes Rex 2 faced. He just stated his opinion.
Hope for a clean game!
Sure hunwick was free but Lucic didnt really let Pouliot !:P is that a revenge?
WTV i think Max been lucky in is badluck,he didnt show sign of live and Savard crosby etc was ok to stand up!As for Reechi its just a cheapshot saying that the best Dr. of all team tried to talkshit so Z get a bigger suspension.Hope it would be a good clean game but somethimes it look easier if Bruins or Z get frustrate 😛
Thomas 4,25 or something like this against MTL
I’d say the only way things could get ugly is if the Bruins mess with Price. Other than that I agree with Matt. There will be an early fight and that’s it. I hope this won’t disapoint too many fans.
Both organizations know what’s at stake and loosing Lucic with a Stanley Cup shot in sight is not an option for the Bs. Hard fought game ahead no doubt.
The Recchi comments aren’t going over well in Montreal for a couple reasons. The first is because we are still very upset about the hit and were horrified to see Pacioretty hurt that bad.
The second reason is because Recchi was a good Canadien and a good Montrealer. Recchi was a prototypical Canadien. Undersized player with huge heart and skill. Hell, he was one of the smurfs on the famous smurf line with Koivu. He and his wife raised a ton of money for the local hospitals and was very involved in the local community.
To hear most Bruins (who we as habs fans dismiss as thugs) wish Pacioretty a speedy recovery only to hear one of our own say what he said, it set everyone off in a frenzy. What a jerk, what a 2-face type of stuff.
RD, your right about the penalties. The Bruins can be baited into taking bad penalties, and they have to control it because the Canadiens PP can devistate them.
First off, thank you RD for being rational on here as a Canadiens fan.
Secondly, I think people are misconstruing what Rex was saying- he was blaming the MTL organization. He wasn’t saying Max himself embellished the injury, but rather that the organization was a little melodramatic. Who knows if this is actually true, but he does have a point.
If you ask me, the reason Max was on the ice for so long without moving was because his neck hurt, his head hurt, and he wasn’t about to try and move in case he was badly injured. I think anyone in his situation would do the same.
@Robbie,
I’m not sure Chara can sneak anywhere with that bulk but he can definitely kill the habs on the scoresheet. Hardest shot in the NHL says it all.
@George it’s hard for Boston to stay out of the box. For some reason, the Bruins take on a bit of a broad street bullies persona when doing home games. They hit late on icings, they hit from behind, crosscheck, instigate…I’m not saying the Habs are angels but they are much more subtle. They’ll really need to show a lot of discipline tonight with everyone watching for those refs not to lost control of the game.
Concussions are really unknown territory. We saw the hit, we saw the kid KOed for a long time. I’m pretty sure they automatically grade a concussion as severe when the player loses consciousness. How people recover from that point onward varies as you guys know very well. Look at the Crosby hit from Hedman. Did that look as bad as the Pacioretty impact? Not in my book but I’m not calling Crosby a faker either for being out so long. The brain is too complicated and injuries to the brain are serious business.
We all saw the hit. Pacioretty was out like a light.
@RD I don’t think it’s the neck injury that’s the issue. I think it’s the fact that his concussion was labeled severe yet he’s out and about 2 days later. I’ve had a mild concussion before and two days later I was still feeling the effects.
It just smells of hypersensitivity on the Montreal side as well as a feeble attempt to get Chara suspended on a play that was ruled clean by the NHL.
That’ll be tough with all of the Montreal diving!
The most important thing they MUST do is stay out of the box!
I want to see Chara sneak in backdoor on a power play like he did against NJ and burn the Canadiens on the score sheet. Why waste time in the penalty box if he can hit Montreal where it really hurts?
Sanden,
Can I break your neck and send you on vacation? Seriously man. Is that what Boston radio is saying these days? Are they just mad that Max got lucky with his injury while Savard’s career is probably over?
How can you be so hypocritical to downplay Max’s injury and yet lament Marc’s? Can you be any more of a homer?
Phil, White probably would give both of these guys a go. He’s a brave kid but he’s no match for them. He’s both a rookie about 200 lbs. He seems to fight well with both hands and shows a hell of a lot of spunk. Lucic has 30 lbs on him and Thornton something similar. White – Campbell would be a good match indeed.
I just don’t see why Boston needs to get a grudge match on White. It’s not like Montreal is trying to have a grudge match on the half dozen fights they lost. Face it, ya lost that fight, won tons of other ones. It’s like when Pouliot one punched Krejci. Did Lucic really have to try to get revenge for a fight David started and lost?
Hopefully this is a clean game, lots of speed and skill and less thuggery this time around.
Finally, don’t expect anything to happen to Chara. Sure, it really sucks and most habs and hab fans think there was intent but what do you do to the best fighter in the league that happens to be 6’9?
I want to see a do over
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Big Z drop them I’d like to see If the Canadiens really mean it to stand up for a teammate (who is enjoying a vacation) if they will fight a guy that they had to try and sick the cops on to be able to take him down. Go B’s GO
Phil, White may be tougher than everyone on that team except Moen, but he is hardly a heavyweight. He is a Campbell type player, and very close to Campbell’s size. If anyone tries to hand it to him, I hope its Boychuk.
I just wonder if Ryan White has the cajones to pick a fight with a Thornton or Lucic. Boychuck can handle himself ok, but if White thinks he is as tough as he appears to think he is, let’s see him try to prove it tonight. If he does, I look forward to seeing some of his chicklets on the ice.