For notes from our pregame scrums with Jay Miller and Nevin Markwart, visit BostonHockeyNow.com for an early afternoon posting of my Sunday “Colageo: …” column
The story tonight from TD Garden is the Bruins are playing their best, battled-tested, post-injuries hockey of the season.
Linus Ullmark, Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort are back in the lineup, so is center Matt Poitras. Parker Wotherspoon and Oskar Steen get the night off (not that they wanted it), while Mason Lohrei and Johnny Beecher were assigned to Providence. The fact is these decisions are leveraged by the waivers implications (the Bruins don’t want to lose any players to the wire) and the need to get these formerly injured players in action.
Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub reported after the morning skate that Carlo’s injury was confirmed as a concussion, which according to some counts makes it six official in his career, the last coming in October 2022. Remember how he was cheated out of playoff experience early in his NHL career.
The 1987-88 Bruins were celebrated tonight at center ice prior to the game. What should always be noted is that, while that five-game, second-round victory felt like the Stanley Cup for Bruins fans who hadn’t seen it since 1972 (and wouldn’t again until 2011) was not only a one-off but the first of five series victories in six matchups over the next seven years inclusive against Montreal.
FIRST PERIOD
Montreal defenseman David Savard beat up David Pastrnak on the opening shift with a pair of thunderous hits behind the Canadiens’ net.
Mike Matheson gets the first penalty of the game, but Montreal gets the kill.
The Canadiens get an odd-man rush in transition, and Kevin Shattenkirk goes to the box after Ullmark made his first big save on Sean Monahan. Montreal to the powerplay.
The Canadiens convert 56 seconds into the Shattenkirk penalty, as Cole Caulfield knocks down a point shot trying to tip the puck and, stationed at the right post, tucked it inside the post for a PPG, 1-0 Montreal.
Sam Montembeault with a great save on Charlie Coyle from the slot, fed by Matt Grzelcyk, who put on about as swift a position recovery as is humanly possible.
Brandon Carlo, in his comeback game, goes to the net and tips a Trent Frederic pass past Montembeault to tie the game.
Montembeault on Marchand. The Bruins are getting high-quality chances from the slot.
Joel Armia puts Montreal back on top, going to the net to tip teammate Joshua Roy’s shot-pass inside the far post on Ullmark. 2-1 Canadiens.
Frederic picks a fight with Savard, doesn’t get anywhere.
Hampus Lindholm lost a corner battle to Roy, and Ullmark had to stop Monahan in tight.
Jake DeBrusk tied the game with 1:50 remaining in the first period, darting out of the right-wing corner to stuff the puck on Montembeault.
Less than a minute later, Danton Heinen tipped Grzelcyk’s shot from the left point, torturously slow as it entered the far side of the Montreal net, 3-2 Boston.
Caulfield thought he had a goal on his stick with two seconds left in the period as the Bruins were scrambling, but Ullmark sprawled to put a stick onto the delivery at the open side from a low angle to the left of the Bruins net.
Shots after one: 12-8 Boston.
What’s Jim Montgomery going to say about this one? The closing out of opponent’s transition plays and zone entries so efficient in Thursday’s victory over Colorado has been spotty so far tonight, and Montreal has won some battles due to rust, some due to a Boston team too hurried to think offense before the possession is established, etc.
No doubt, Monty will want to see his game get back to that intense, backchecking brand of team defense that has made their attack so fluid in the previous three games.
Lineup changes certainly affect team chemistry, but those 20 minutes would not have been as successful against Monday’s opponent, the Winnipeg Jets.
SECOND PERIOD
Bruins come out for the second throwing the body, something that is a sure sign they got a tongue lashing in between periods. The method they won with the last three games has gone missing tonight, predictable and forgivable in a game like this one.
Coyle to the box for high-sticking at 5:10, Montreal to the powerplay … Matheson hammers home the PPG at 6:16 to tie the game, 3-3.
In the latest proof that penalties are called relative to the victim of the infraction and not so much the actions of the guilty player, Trent Frederic had the puck behind the Montreal net and was mugged by Josh Anderson, who committed two, distinct infractions in taking down Frederic who finally started fighting Anderson.
The Bruins got a powerplay out of it, but it should never have gotten that far. Had a star forward been at the end of Anderson’s hockey actions, the penalty would have been automatic and there would not have been a fight.
With seven seconds left on the Anderson penalty, Montreal RW Rafael Harvey-Pinard launched the puck over the glass. The officials conferred and determined it was not a penalty. The guess here is they believe the puck cleared the glass outside the zone.
Heinen took off on a 2-on-1 and, given the shot, buried it for a 4-3 lead at 10:46. The may be a goal-of-the-year contender for the Bruins. Marchand stopped a long pass near the Montreal blue line (and left board), blocking it back to Pastrnak, who hurried his zone entry seeing that Coyle was striding into the zone weakside (right). Pasta cut to the middle and weaved a brilliant pass between three defenders. Coyle arrived perfectly in synch with the delivery, reaching out to tip the puck into the top-left corner at 11:35 (5-3 Boston). The TD Garden crowd went wild.
Brendan “The Gamer” Gallagher, curled to the right post and banked a stuff shot off Ullmark’s leg to cut the lead to 5-4 with 6:44 remaining in the period. And it’s still a game.
Pretty transition hockey from Montreal, and Grzelcyk gets a hacking PIM with 1:04 left in the second period. Montreal to the powerplay: The Habs have three points of attack, but they want to get Matheson the puck at the top for the big boom. He got one swing that misconnected, the period ended.
Bruins up 5-4 after two and are outshooting Montreal, 26-15.
THIRD PERIOD
This game has been a distracted step backward for the Bruins, perhaps inherent in the occasion of an Era Night and rare meeting with Montreal, accented by some lineup changes.
They’re up 5-4 going into the third period and have to face a 56-second Montreal powerplay (Grzelcyk in the box for slashing).
The Bruins positioned well, and the Canadiens never established in-zone possession.
Pastrnak gets a steal near the Boston blue line, fends off his checkers and scores a second-effort goal to give the Bruins breathing room at 6-4 just 1;26 into the third period.
Coyle’s puck-possession game has been too much for Montreal at both ends of the rink tonight, and his primary assist to Brad Marchand in the slot makes it a 7-4 game with 15:28 remaining.
Jake DeBrusk finds Pavel Zacha at the doorstep for a one-toucher to make it 8-4. The goal chased Montembeault, whose excellent first-period work has obviously gone up in smoke. In the net Cayden Primeau.
Nick Suzuki to the box, and Danton Heinen with the hat trick with 9:20 left. Many hugs for Heinen from his teammates, thrilled to see the veteran winger find new life under his college coach Jim Montgomery. Heinen had to be patient with his career given the flat cap and the tryout situation and Bruins’ management’s due diligence in looking over its training camp in earnest. Eventually, Heinen was signed. The nice thing about his purgatory was the Bruins always kept him as part of their family, including all the early-season centennial activities. It was as if he was a Bruin, just unsigned.
A little Marchand-Suzuki subplot at the end of their shift.
And, with 6:00 remaining, we have a full-fledged wave happening in TD Garden. This is the problem with too much time left in a blowout.
OK, that joke fell flat. We’re packing up for postgame. Drive safely folks.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 