Final score: Montreal 2, Bruins 0
By S. Bradley
BOSTON — Two Bruins mistakes, and a lot of Montreal saves and blocked shots, could equal just one thing — a Canadiens win.
Montreal capitalized on an early Tomas Kaberle miscue and then sat back and waited until the Bruins made a second gaffe in the third period to grind their way to a 2-0 win in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal series tonight at TD Garden.
Game 2 is Saturday night at the same venue.
Kaberle tried rimming the puck up the wall on his backhand to Dennis Seidenberg but put too much mustard on it. Scott Gomez intercepted it and set up Brian Gionta’s goal just 2:44 into the game for the 1-0 lead.
Gomez forced a Milan Lucic turnover that ended in Gionta’s second goal with 3:18 left in the third.
“I thought we had a pretty decent first game. I mean we did a lot of good things, we did some things that we should stay away from, but I really like the way we respond when we get scored on,” said captain Zdeno Chara. “We kept going, we kept pushing forward. So that was obviously a good sign.”
Here’s a glance at the rest of the box score:
•The best way to describe Carey Price’s night in net was solid. He made 31 saves and was rarely screened on Boston’s shots.
•Aiding Price were the 19 blocked shots by the Habs, led by James Wisniewski and Brent Sopel with four apiece.
•Brad Marchand led the Bruins with six shots on net. Chara was second with five and also had five shots blocked.
•Somehow Kaberle didn’t manage a shot on goal and was minus-2. Seidenberg was also a minus-2. Both players have to pick up their play in order to shut down the Gomez line or this will be a short series.
@nifty, Imagine the short walk down Stanley or Peel right afterwork to attend the game where the Stadium was planned to be built. IMO the bigO was the main reason why the Expos went. Can’t blame the fans, who in the world enjoys a sauna in the summer.
Getting off the metro at pie ix. Hanging out and having a Carlsberg with the Oompapa band after the Expos game. Awesome times.
“There’s a small minority of you people that do like the sport (like Matt who impressively pumps a post out every 90 minutes) but the rest of you just show up when times are good.”
What are you saying? You need a blog to be a real fan? I really don’t think you have any idea how much the people of Boston love their teams. I’m sure this dumbass argument is going to continue going round and round, but believe me – Bruins fans are not a ‘small minority’ in Boston.
How does bringing up baseball explain whether or not Boston has true hockey fans? The fact you are trying to distract from the argument by bringing up other sports shows how fairweather you are. (There are no other sports!) The expos left because we are hockey fans and Bud Selig got tired of seeing 6000 people in an 75000 capacity stadium. It only strengthens my point.
You guys go watch whatever because most Bostonians don’t care about hockey. Need proof? What’s your headline on the herald? (Red Sox)
What’s your headline on the Globe? (Gonzales followed by a Celtics quiz). There’s a small minority of you people that do like the sport (like Matt who impressively pumps a post out every 90 minutes) but the rest of you just show up when times are good. It showed watching all those people file out of the stadium muttering (I hate this sport anyway)
I do think you guys are fairweather fans. Where do the Bruins fit in the pecking order?
The Bruins are behind the celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, hell the fighting irish…you name it. You can’t even sell out your tiny arena until recently.
So ole ole bugs you? It’s not my favorite but at least it’s distinctive. What’s Boston’s cheer? To Boo? Oh no wait… “Let’s go Range—Boston -Clap clap clap clap crap”. 17000 people breathing through their mouth does not constitute a cheer!
ok! That should rile things up for the next match:)
@RD OK we will have to respectfully disagree about the 911 cheer and calling him Miracle Max. It’s not meant to mock the player so much as to mock the Montreal media and PR department who had him on life support when in fact he was at the movies…but point taken. And as for Bruins fans being “fairweather”??? because we happen to be in a city that is home to more than one pro sports team? Now you brought it up so…how is your baseball team doing anyway? And Montreal has a team in the Canadian Rugby…er….Football league too right? And soccer? Really? It may take second place to hockey but it didn’t stop the Habs fans from co-opting the songs and cheers? “Ole, Ole, Ole” has been sung at soccer games in Europe for much longer than you guys have been taunting us with it. So lets stick to ripping each others teams and leave the fans out of it.
@Matt keep it in check,say what you like but even trolls have to tell the truth.This is why I love this blog(not the other) You can express your “hockey love” without disrespecting OUR TEAM.Its only one game…get over it.
GO BRUINS !!!…ALL OF EM.
@ Matt, this was brought up by a local media. Might have happened in a sports bar. My apologies to the Bruins fans and board.
@RD
I think most Bruins fans do respect Orr, Esposito, and Bourque. We also love guys that are successful without all of the talent in the world, like O’Reilly. Guys who put it all on the line for the team are what I love about hockey. That’s why I love guys like Campbell and Thornton. They may not be able to make too many end to end rushes, but they will bust their butt every shift. If those guys also fight then so be it, it’s a part of the game.
I wont say Bruins fans are the roller derby crowd but they focus on the fighting aspect of the game more than the actual scoring part. It’s a shame because if you look at the team history, I admire Esposito, Orr, Bourque a hell of alot more than Milbury, O’Reilly and Lucic.
As for the marketing aspect, I get what Bernard is saying though I have no idea if the hit on Pacioretty is used to see tickets.
There’s still hints of it though. For instance, that whole “everybody call 911″ song thing is pretty bad taste. Sure, it’s dumb that dumb fans called 911 but your rallying cry really shouldn’t have anything to do with that incident. It’s really bad taste (in my opinion) since it stems from Max’s injury. Calling him miracle Max is another example. If the guy is recovering, great! Right?? What am I missing here? Is it because he’s wearing red white and blue? Because if Savard recovered that quickly, how do you think you’d take it if Pittsburg fans questioned the legitmacy of the injury?
If anything, we have a superiority complex with being habs fans because we are die hard fans, not fairweather friends.
We don’t let hockey relegate at number 4 in the sports market. Hockey is #1 here. Football, baseball, soccer, everything comes second to the Habs.
Seeing all those empty gold seats in a 2-0 game in the playoffs made me want to puke.
btw, did you guys know the TD Center is actually the “Toronto Dominion Center?”
@Bernard Gilbert
I am glad you can admit that Habs fans can be just as awful as any other. Not sure about the video being played in the garden. If Matt says it never happened then it never happened. I agree that the bruins are looking frustrated and hope for everyone’s sake that both teams just play some hockey…hopefully the Black and Gold play a little better than the Bleu, blanc et rouge. So lets call it a truce and hope that we see some good hockey and that everyone stays healthy.
Montreal homers are back. If you idiots are dumb enough to believe the Bruins show that hit at the Garden, there really is no arguing with you.
Bernard-
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Chara hit on Max was never shown at the Garden and has never been used in any way since that night.
Please don’t spread lies in these comments or I will have to block you. Thanks.
MK
@PatrickD,
I heard the team markets Zedno’s hit on Max. Apparently the crowd roars the loudest everytime it’s being showed. But I don’t mean to say that you do.
The habs are far from it yet no doubt though. I fear Price being hurt beyond the rules of the game of hockey. I think that the B’s frustration could lead to a bloody mess, and I can hear the B’s fans asking for more.
You’re right about the crowd in MTL. It has changed a lot. Much younger, less civilized then it has been known for over the years, much like society has evolved as a whole of late, I find. That is not to say anything about the odd riot when we do well come spring. We all know these are sparked by criminal gangs, not the fans.
Would really have liked to see a lot more of the 4th unit out there. Really no need for the 3rd line to be on the ice almost twice as much. They were pretty much invisible, while I liked what I saw from the 4th line. I liked what I saw from Peverley, but Ryder was the worst player on the ice all night.
@RD thanks for being a voice of reason among the madness of Habs fans. You are right..it was one game and all the B’s fans are already jumping ship. We as a collective (team included) have convinced ourselves we cant beat these guys. Until that changes we wont. And the fans filing out with 3 minutes left…inexcusable. Good vibes people…not to sound too new age but we need to believe…oh…and Bernard Gilbert…you have the same name as my favorite uncle in Quebec…he is a smart, well educated man…you… not so much. Please take the shots at Chara (histrionic but fundamentally true)but to say that bruins fans are a “roller derby crowd” is laughable. Have you been to the Bell Centre?
wish we had a young goal scorer. oh we do he’s sitting..go pallie
Someone needs to take the biscuit to the basket! to many shots from the point!!
1-0 …Price the wall and the divers team scores
Habs gave more hit then Bs and we seen again that Zdeno cannot control hiself but he gave us a easy end of game lol
Well, when you look at Montreal, Gionta at 5’6 looked like the much better captain by getting 2 goals where as Chara looked like a neanderthal out there. Not only did they skate circles around him, he was a complete bonehead to get that penalty and hurt his team so badly when they needed him most.
Some captain…
The fans went home because they knew Homo Zednosaurus was bound to do something Zednoish like he did. This guy is a nutcase with a roller derby crowd behind him.
Shawn, where is your support for your team? You guys just lost game one.
You know what I thought was disgusting? Watching Bruins fans filing out of the stadium with 3-4 minutes to go with their team only down by 2.
Habs played well to win but the Bruins ran into Price on his A game while Thomas seemed frazzled.
In the third the D just kept trying to pass while in the offensive zone or put the puck into the corners. SHOOT it at price maybe you get a lucky bounce!
I didnt like the Kaberle trade when it was made and it looks worse every game. This team will not win this series, and Claude (and possibly Pete) will be looking for a new job.
Oh yeah. His second minus doesn’t need an explanation.
The puck flipped up on Kabby and yeah it was a turnover. I saw many more blatant gaffes from some of our heroes. I also saw a great pass to spring Marchant on a breakaway. I saw a nice cross ice pass that just missed. I thought his effort was there. I can’t say that for many. On my list of under performers Kabby is a ways down.
“Somehow Kaberle didn’t manage a shot on goal and was minus-2.”
Somehow? That’s how the guy plays. Why did Boston want him? If Kaberle had been with the B’s since the start of the season, he’d still be looking to play in his first playoff game.
Why would they mix up their offensive strategy now after 83 games? Frigging pathetic, gutless performance tonight. Cam should fire Claude now before game 2 and put theC on Thornton while he’s at it.
The way teams are blocking shots, traffic or not, shots from the point are not going to get through. I hope the B’s mix up the offensive strategy on Saturday.
Despite the zone pressure, too many guys did not bring their ‘A’ game. Did Chris Kelly touch the puck? I can’t remember…
Not enough traffic in front. If Price sees a shot, he will almost always make the save. Also, while I wasn’t disgusted with the game overall, why would Chara take that penalty? There is 2:30 left, ant you decide to rough up a guy who’s not been much of a factor offensively all night. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
well said, nifty. disgusting better describes it IMO.
Have to agree with ‘the other nifty’ that game was brutal.
Seidenberg played fine. He kept his leg moving and threw his body around.
The Habs’ speed made Chara look like a pylon more than once.
Habs’ playoff attitude is amazing.
They played like they have their name etched on that cup more than any other team.
B’s should still win this series.
A pretty decent first game? I wish that was a misquote. For the love of all things sacred that was brutal. More turnovers than Pilsbury. Some guys spent too much time outside today. A bunch of shots at Carey’s CH is not a decent game. Sorry.