Canadiens-Bruins Preview

 

VIDEO PLAYLIST

• Price, Habs Halt Bruins In SO, 2-1

Regular Season Matchup
	W-L-OT	HOME	ROAD	DIV	CONF
MON	11-11-1	6-5-1	5-6-0	4-1-0	10-4-0
BOS	10-8-4	6-5-2	4-3-2	3-0-1	7-4-4
· Complete Standings

Team Stat Comparison
53	Goals	50
65	Goals Against	53
12	Power Play Goals	10
20	Power Play Goals Allowed	13
1	Shorthanded Goals	1
1	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	3
327	Penalty Minutes	280
14	Average Penalty Minutes	13

Goalie Breakdown
	GOALIE	GP	W	TGA	GAA	SO	SV	SV%
	Carey Price	16	6	44	2.84	0	451	.911
	Jaroslav Halak	9	5	21	2.62	0	197	.904
	Tim Thomas	14	5	33	2.33	3	370	.918
	Tuukka Rask	8	5	19	2.31	1	210	.917

Team Stat Leaders
G	Mike Cammalleri 11	Patrice Bergeron 7
A	Tomas Plekanec 17	Zdeno Chara 11
PTS	Tomas Plekanec 22	Patrice Bergeron 14
PIM	Paul Mara 35	Shawn Thornton 47
SOG	Mike Cammalleri 80	Zdeno Chara 58

As the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins quickly escorted the Montreal Canadiens out of the playoffs last spring, but the banged-up Bruins look like a different team in the midst of a major offensive drought.

The Canadiens, meanwhile, are having trouble stopping the puck going into the archrivals' first meeting of the season, and these struggling clubs will try to sort out their issues as they face off Thursday night at the TD Garden.

Little went wrong for Boston during a dominating regular-season run in 2008-09, but the Bruins (6-7-1) have been derailed by a punchless offense that is playing without injured top-line forwards Marc Savard and Milan Lucic. They also lost leading goal scorer Phil Kessel to Toronto in the offseason.

Boston hasn't scored in more than 130 minutes after getting blanked in back-to-back games on its recent road trip -- the first time that has happened to the Bruins since March 17 and 20, 2007.

They have scored a total of three goals in their last four games, losing three times despite allowing five goals.

"We're going to have to decide that we're tired of hearing we had a good effort without winning," coach Claude Julien said after Tuesday night's 2-0 loss to Detroit.

Center David Krejci and former Montreal winger Michael Ryder are among the most snake-bitten of the Bruins. Krejci has five points after totaling 73 last season, and Ryder has been held without a point in six straight games.

The Bruins announced Thursday that Krejci has been diagnosed with swine flu and will be kept away from the team until he has had no symptoms or fever for 24 hours.

Ryder was at his best against his former club in last season's playoffs, totaling four goals and three assists in the four-game sweep, which avenged three postseason defeats to Montreal this decade and abruptly ended the Habs' 100th season.

Including playoffs, Boston won its final nine games against the Canadiens last season after losing 13 in a row in one stretch in the see-saw rivalry from 2007-08.

The Bruins could continue the run if they can exploit Montreal's struggling defense, which has allowed 18 goals while losing three of four -- a surprising problem under defensive-minded first-year coach Jacques Martin.

"What concerns me most is our lack of effectiveness in protecting our goaltender," Martin said. "Part of that starts in the offensive zone with back pressure -- helping the defense -- but also in being more effective in the defensive zone."

Carey Price lost his sixth straight start and saw his goals-against average swell to 3.63 on Tuesday as Montreal fell 5-4 at home to Atlanta.

Backup Jaroslav Halak could get his eighth start Thursday. Halak has won five of his last six appearances, but he's 0-2-0 with a 4.83 GAA in two road starts.

With nine goals in their last two games, the Canadiens (7-8-0) are starting to see some results offensively after they revamped their top forward lines in the offseason. Newcomer Mike Cammalleri scored his team-leading seventh goal against the Thrashers, while Brian Gionta had his first two-goal game for Montreal.

Last season's Habs couldn't mount much offense against Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas, who was 8-0-1 with a 1.85 GAA versus Montreal, including playoffs.

After a rough start to his season, Thomas has been rounding back into form. He has posted a 1.70 GAA in his last three starts even though he has lost all of them.