The Canadiens Should Serve As A Nice Wake-Up Call To The Bruins

It could possibly snow a little bit in New England tonight and what better way to serve as a precursor to another long miserable winter than a visit from the Boston Bruins' most hated rival: the Montreal Canadiens.

When we last saw the Habs on the TD Garden ice, they were slinking off after Nathan Horton's overtime winner in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Tonight kicks off six meetings in the 2011-12 regular season between the Northeast Division foes. Additionally, it's the start of a home-and-home series which concludes on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

So far, neither team is exactly setting the NHL on fire as they are tied for last-place in the division with six points. Only Winnipeg (with 5 points) has been worse so far in the Eastern Conference. The obvious advantage tonight is that Boston (3-5-0) has only practiced since Saturday's frustrating loss to San Jose. For Montreal (2-5-2), this will be their third game in four nights and therefore they should be skating on empty after the initial jump of seeing an opponent that they despise.

B's defenseman Adam McQuaid is expected back tonight after missing two weeks worth of games with a neck/head injury. His return means that Steven Kampfer will be in a suit and tie in the press box with the other healthy scratch-Jordan Caron.

ESPNBoston's James Murphy says McQuaid will team with Andrew Ference on the third defensive pairing. Zdeno Chara and Johnny Boychuk remains the top pair with Dennis Seidenberg and Joe Corvo the second line.

Murphy also surmises that Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Rich Peverley will be the top forward line, flipping with Milan Lucic, Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin. Benoit Pouliot, David Krejci and Nathan Horton remain on the third line while Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton are Claude Julien's fourth line aka Fribble Crew until the end of time.

Tim Thomas starts in goal for the host Bruins. Canadiens goaltender Carey Price played last night but didn't get the start on Monday so I'd expect him back in between the pipes this evening.

As Michael Felger always points out, Montreal is typically a terrible matchup for Boston. Their combination of small, fast and skilled forwards that love to dive and embellish things is pretty much the Bruins' kryptonite. I would argue that of all the playoff series' last spring, the Canadiens were the hardest out (and yes I remember it took seven games to beat the Lightning too). Bottom line is that a win tonight in front of a fired up home crowd and then two points in Montreal on Saturday would be huge for the B's as they try to put last season behind them and begin their new journey.

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News & Notes Heading Into Tonight's Bruins Game vs. the Maple Leafs at TD Garden

Tonight marks the first Northeast Division game of the season for the Boston Bruins (2-4-0) as the Toronto Maple Leafs (4-0-1) visit TD Garden for the first of six matchups between the teams.

The Leafs are off to a great start, including their comeback 3-2 shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets last night at home. Former Bruins whipping boy Phil Kessel (7 goals, 5 assists) is playing some of the best hockey of his life; he leads the NHL in goals and points plus he looks more confident than he's ever been (always an issue).

Bruins center David Krejci is 50-50 to return this evening after missing the last three contests with a mysterious core injury. Defenseman Adam McQuaid (neck) has already been ruled out and he'll miss his third straight game. Steven Kampfer will make his 2011-12 debut as Matt Bartkowski has rightfully been returned to Providence after a lukewarm start.

Regardless if Krejci plays tonight or not, B's head coach Claude Julien has chosen to shake up the top three forward lines. Chris Kelly moves up to the first line where he'll center Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin. Nathan Horton drops to the second line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand; finally, Rich Peverley will go to the third line with Benoit Pouliot and Jordan Caron. The Fribble Crew-aka the fourth line-of Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton remains intact.

With an NHL-low 11 goals (1.67 per game when you discount the shootout goal by Seguin), it was time for Claude to make some changes in hopes of injecting some energy into his lifeless and offensively-challenged team.

Tim Thomas is expected to start for Boston between the pipes while Toronto backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson gets his first action of the season. The B's catch a break there as Maple Leafs youngster James Reimer is one of the best up and coming goalies in the NHL.

UPDATE: Krejci is back, Caron sits in the press box (healthy scratch).

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Hurricanes Pick Up Their First Win Of Season, At The Bruins' Expense

It is less than a week into the 2011-12 NHL season so pardon me if I can't quite work up a lather yet about the Boston Bruins' lame beginning.

The defending Stanley Cup champs have gotten off to a slow start; their first road game of the season was tonight at the RBC Center in Raleigh Center and the host Hurricanes (1-2-1) picked up their first win with a 3-2 triumph over the B's (1-3-0).

With seven goals in four games, it's clear that putting the puck in the net has been Boston's biggest issue so far. Let's not forget that the power play is still a hot mess, off to a rousing 1 for 18 start (picking up where they left off in the playoffs).

David Krejci missed the game with a midsection injury so Tyler Seguin got the bump up to center on the first line with Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton flanking him. Boston still needs Krejci but for one game at least, Seguin (1 goal, 4 shots, 7 of 9 on face-offs) was a more than suitable replacement.

B's goaltender Tim Thomas (1-2-0) got his third start and yet again, it wasn't his fault that his team failed to get two points. He made 31 saves but was the victim of some bad luck and a shaky defense in front of him.

Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward (26 saves) showed why he's one of the more underrated guys at his position with a strong showing.

After a scoreless first period, Carolina opened the scoring 42 seconds into the second frame with a power-play strike from defenseman Joni Pitkanen (1st of the season). Former Bruins great Tomas Kaberle and Jussi Jokinen assisted on the goal. Pitkanen was by the face-off dot and he took forever to fake a shot twenty times before finally unleashing a low one that found its way past Thomas. It appeared like Erik Staal screened Thomas on the play, regardless he should not have been able to park there so easily.

Boston bumbled through three straight scoreless power play chances and predictably, they didn't get a call the rest of the night (the B's had the last three penalties).

When Carolina's Anthony Stewart (1st of the season) scored 3:42 into the third (from Tim Brent and Tim Gleason) on a shot that trickled past Thomas at the post, I was firing off an angry Tweet but Seguin interrupted my venom with a sick top-shelf wrist shot just 25 seconds later. It was his first of many this season, from Horton and Adam McQuaid. It was a juicy glimpse of what Seguin can do when he has room to shoot.

Something called Jiri Tlusty (1st of the season) iced it with his game-winner at 13:32 from Brandon Sutter and Patrick Dwyer. He was unmarked in the slot and made Thomas and Co. pay for that.

Boston was about to go on another ill-fated power play but Patrice Bergeron hit Brad Marchand with a nice cross-ice feed for a one-timer and the Bruins' second goal (Marchmont's second of the season). Former Hurricane Joe Corvo had the second assist at 16:35.

I'm not going to say time ran out on the Bruins since it never really felt like they'd ever tie it before regulation ended.

McQuaid ran head first into the boards (how many times has he done that in the last year?) in the third and didn't return. Don't be surprised to see him held out of the next game with Matt Bartkowski getting another shot after being a healthy scratch for the last three contests.

It won't get any easier as the B's will remain on the road the next few days before meeting the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night. After failing to really show up against two subpar teams (Carolina and Colorado), expect Boston to at least make a game of it in Theo Epstein's new home.

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