Event: Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens
Date/Time: Monday, November 21, 2011 - 7 p.m. EDT.
Location: Bell Centre (Capacity: 21,273), Montreal, QB.
Broadcast Info: Monday's game between the Bruins and Canadiens will be broadcast live on NESN, as well as RDS in Canada. The game can also be heard on the 100.7 WZLX. It will not be 98.5 the Sports Hub, because the Patriots will be on air.
Last Time Out: People said it would happen. There was no way the Bruins could come out and keep up with scoring more than five goals a game in every win.
The critics were right--for two games.
In two out of eight games in the month of November, the Bruins have been held to under five goals in a single game. Mind you they still won both of those games and still put up four, and two goals respectively. However, their last game out, the Bruins blanked the Islanders 6-0 and looked much more like the team that people have come to expect to see.
Chris Kelly had two goals in that game, while Patrice Bergeron, Nathan Horton, Andrew Ference and Zdeno Chara picked up the other four. The Bruins once again chased the goaltender, Rick DiPietro from net, a trend that they have seemed to master. In four of their last eight games, the B’s have faced two opposing goaltenders in the same game.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the ice, the Canadiens have been productive as well. In their last game against the Rangers on Saturday, they blanked the streaking team, 4-0. That’s the second time in three games the Canadiens have managed to shutout a team like that, and Carey Price is a big part of that. He has now logged 127 minutes of consecutive shutout time, not allowing a single goal in his last two starts.
Storyline: It’s been just over three weeks since the last time these two teams met, and after the second of two losses to the Canadiens, no one could have ever predicted the Bruins would perform the way they did coming out of it. Since that game, the Bruins have scored 42 goals in eight games (5.25 goals per game) and have gone an impressive 8-0-0 in that span. That’s good enough for 7th place in the Conference--eight spots up from where they were three weeks ago.
The interesting thing to watch this game is how the two teams will match up. As mentioned before, the Bruins are on an offensive high right now, whereas goaltender Carey Price hasn’t allowed a point in his last two games.
The Canadiens have gone 5-3-1 since the last meeting, including two wins in overtime and a shootout loss to Buffalo.
Players To Watch: Chris Kelly is heating up for the Bruins and has six points in his last five games. With four goals, two assists and a plus-9 rating, the tough center has been producing major production for the Bruins and racking up big chunks of ice time.
The hero for the Canadiens recently has been captain Brian Gionta who netted a pair of goals on Saturday against the Rangers and has three goals in the past two games. Also, left winger Max Pacioretty currently leads the team with nine goals, and has six points in his last five games as well.
Prediction: The Bruins are looking for a little bit of vengeance against this team, and no doubt will look to give a little pay back. Though it is at the Bell Centre, Bruins will still find a way to get a win. Final Score: Bruins 5, Canadiens 3.
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