The Boston Bruins are seeded eighth in the Eastern Conference, finishing the season with a 41-29-12 record, good for 94 points. Montreal is the conference's top seed with a 47-25-10 record and 104 points.
Montreal has an 8-0 record against the Bruins this season, and they are riding an 11-game winning streak against Boston. The Habs have outscored the B's 39-16 this season, and their impressive team speed and league-leading power play have helped them dominate the B's.
Boston will get a slight lift tonight, however, as leading scorer Marc Savard will return to the lineup for the first time since March 22. The team is still without 22-goal man Chuck Kobasew, who is out 4-8 weeks with a broken leg. Patrice Bergeron has returned to practice after sitting out 72 games with a concussion, but he will not return in game one, and perhaps not at all this playoff season.
The general consensus is that the Canadiens will make short work of this overachieving Boston club, as they have done all season. Boston will have to play mistake-free hockey, executing their stifling defensive system to perfection if they hope to contain Montreal's speedy forwards. The Bruin's MVP for most of the season, goalie Tim Thomas, will have to be outstanding in his playoff debut if he hopes to out-duel the rookie phenom in the Montreal net, Carey Price. Boston will have to play a physical game to keep the Habs' attack pinned down, as size and toughness is one of Boston's few edges.
Boston is not as totally overmatched in this series as some have suggested, but the history between these two teams, both recent and distant, does not bode well for the Bruins' chances. The playoff heartbreaks are just too many to count, from Rocket Richard's half-unconscious game-winner in 1952 (pictured right, the raccoon-eyed Bruins goalie Sugar Jim Henry bowing before the bloodied, yet still regal Richard) to the infamous "too many men" incident in 1979. Hopefully this year the Ghosts of the Forum will let the Bruins be.
This is the third time these two teams have met since 2002, but in the previous two meetings, the roles were reversed. In 2002, Boston was the top seed yet lost their first-round series four games to two; two years later, the two-seeded Bruins also made a first-round exit, losing a seven-game series to the Habs after being up 3-1.
Boston has not won a playoff series since defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in 1999.
This will be the NHL-record 31st time these two clubs have met in the playoffs, having played each other in 152 games. Montreal holds a substantial 23-7 lead all-time over the Bruins, including an impressive 18 consecutive series wins from 1943 to 1988.
The matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs is second all-time in terms of both number of series (23) and games (117).
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